The New You, For This New World
by RinRoses
Summary: Harry Potter has just entered a new world full of magic. It seems the world around him isn't the only thing changing though... Fem!Harry
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Harry Potter, its copyright, trademarks, characters, and everything else part of it fictionally and legally are all owned by J.K. Rowling. This fanfiction gives me no monetary gain of any kind and in no way reflects the views, thoughts, or anything else of Ms. Rowling. It's just something I'm doing for fun.

AN: Hello! This is my very first fic. Do please enjoy and, if you feel strongly, write a review. Also, I'm aware of my weird issue with accidentally slipping into neutral pronouns (they/them.) I'm going to go through and fix all of them when I get the chance.

* * *

Chapter 1

Pain wasn't something Harry Potter was unfamiliar with. In fact, one could easily make the argument that Harry Potter was quite intimate with pain. Growing up with abusive, neglectful relatives, the Dursleys, Harry knew many different kinds of pain. The pain of hunger and of having to sleep on little more than an old baby blanket on a hardwood floor. The pain of sunburn on the back of his neck from working all day in the garden or of Vernon's belt for a poorly or slowly done chore. The pain of 'Harry Hunting' or of having no friends. Yes, Harry Potter knew many kinds of pain very well.

The pain Harry was currently feeling, however, was quite new to him. For a moment he thought Dudley had fallen off the couch in the tiny little building on the island his relatives dragged him to in order to escape all those letters. That all of this with magic and Hagrid taking him to Diagon Alley was just a dream. It was only for a moment though, as he already knew what it felt like to have Dudley crushing him like a beached baby whale.

If not Dudley though, then what could cause such a pain all over his body? It even felt like his hair hurt it was such an all-over kind of pain. Just as soon as it happened though, it started to fade. The world slowly faded back into view from the inky blackness that it had been for those few moments that felt like hours. Lifting his head, Harry looked around to get a bearing on his surroundings. Everything was far too blurry to make out though. A quick check with his hand informed him that Harry was, indeed, wearing his glasses. They seemed to be having a detrimental effect on his eyes for some reason though. Perhaps it was related to all the pain he just felt?

Removing his glasses Harry looked around once again. He quickly took note of the white marble of the bank, Gringotts, that Hagrid had taken him to. He sat at a large, elegant table made of a dark wood with somewhat fearsome carvings of ornate weapons for the legs. Sitting at the table with him was a goblin, Riphook? No, Griphook. That would mean he was still in the room that they asked Hagrid to wait outside of. What happened?

Griphook made a small grunt before asking "Shall we continue then?"

To which Harry could only reply "Continue with what?"

"With the second request of the late Lord and Lady Potter for you when you became 11," the answer came.

That was right, Harry was led into this room on his way to get money for his Hogwarts supplies from his vault. He didn't know he had a vault, but until recently he also didn't know he was also apparently magical. The pain must have been from that first request Griphook implied. What was it again? Oh right, lifting some kind of spell that his parents apparently did shortly before they were killed. At least they had the forethought to pay the goblins to undo it if they weren't around to do so themselves.

"Yes, sir, please go ahead with whatever is next."

Griphook raised an eyebrow at being called 'sir' but made no comment about it. Instead, he simply pressed a small rune on the table. Another goblin quickly entered the room with a small box only to place it on the table in front of Harry, then leave just as quickly as he came.

"Normally you are only given access to your family vault upon gaining your majority," Griphook explained slightly impatiently. "However, due to a request by the late Lord and Lady Potter you are to be given this item from the family vaults."

Harry hesitantly reached out to open the box that had been placed before him after Griphook's explanation. As soon as Harry touched it, however, the box swung open as if it were spring loaded. Peering inside Harry took note that the box, which was a rather simple wooden thing stained almost black, was rather simple in design. The inside was lined with what he was pretty sure was crushed velvet, only black instead of the red color he only half expected. Inside lay what looked exceedingly similar to a claw in the form of a knife. Laying next to it was a small roll of parchment that Harry gently lifted out of the box to read.

 _Dear Holly,_  
 _If you're reading this it means our plans failed and we aren't here for you any longer. We're so, so sorry, honey. Depending on the timing of things you might be extremely confused right about now. In case that's true, let me explain something. You were born Holly Jasmine Potter. Your father and I used a ritual to hide your name and gender. Technically we're just about to, so hopefully we didn't die doing so and you're not even more confused now._

 _If you think you're name is Harry James Potter, then you're in luck, our plans half worked. If they completely worked we'd be there with you, but sadly it would seem that isn't the case. Just know that your father and I still love you, honey, and we always will no matter what. Always remember that._

 _I've placed this letter in a box that will also contain a dagger. It was to be given to whomever your father married from your grandmother, Dorea Potter nee Black. Apparently, it's a black family thing that their women all carry and are skilled with daggers. I figured I would pass it on to you, my daughter, and hope you never need to find a use for it, but if you do that it will help protect you in some way. It's enchanted to change shape to suit the personality of the owner, with me dead simply let a couple of drops of your blood fall on the pommel, that's the opposite end of the blade, and it will change. Mine was a karambit of some kind._

 _Remember, we love you, Holly. Please enjoy your life as best you know how._

 _Always,_  
 _Lily Potter_

Harry was crying by the time he finished reading the letter from their mother. A million questions were brought up from this, but all Harry could do was let out a choked sob. To finally be able to read something written by at least one of his parents and to be given something that they used to own made Harry the happiest he could ever remember being. It was a bittersweet happiness, but even still.

Not wanting to remain there with Griphook staring at him for much longer Harry reached out and plucked the knife from the box. Cutting their thumb just enough to cause it to bleed Harry gently pressed his bleeding digit against the very bottom of the knife where a small onyx was. The gem almost seemed to drink the tiny amount of blood in before it gave a meager pulse. With a brief flash of light, the karambit became a somewhat longer, very straight and very thin dagger that came to a sharp point.

As if sensing what Harry was going to ask Griphook responded: "It's a stiletto dagger." Harry nodded his thanks and examined the dagger a bit more closely. The blade was a light greyish color and had a series of tiny red runes running along the center of it. The handle was made of some kind of black material that was oddly soft but was as firm as wood. It was almost twisted looking and the same onyx was at the end of it as the form it took for Harry's mom. There was also a pair of rubies resting where the blade and handle met, seemingly fused into the metal itself.

Looking up from the dagger Harry wiped his eyes on his sleeve. "What does it mean I was born as Holly?"

Griphook grew slightly more uncomfortable with that question. "The spell cast on you before that box was given to you, the one that made you faint, undid a ritual. The ritual made you physically male. The change back will be gradual, though I am unaware of how long it will take to fully happen."

Harry- Holly now apparently, gave a nod. He asked for a sheath for their dagger and Griphook supplied them one, for a small fee. Getting to their feet on shaky legs Holly wandered over to the door and exited. He glanced around only to find Hagrid a few paces away.

"'Arry!" Hagrid called. "What 'appened ter yer 'air?" Holly tilted their head slightly in confusion before reaching up to pull his fringe down to be able to see the tips of his hair. To his surprise, it was no longer the jet black that it was previously, but a dark wine-red. It didn't jump out, but if the light hit it just so it was quite noticeable.

"Uh... Nothing, it's always been that way," Holly didn't feel like he sold that as well as he could have, but Hagrid seemed to buy it. Giving Holly a nod he accompanied them down to their vault. Holly was floored by the amount of money in this trust vault (and he still had more vaults for when he got older!?) He was busy trying to make heads or tails of the fact that he was apparently actually a girl while Hagrid was getting something from another vault.

Holly didn't really feel like a girl, but then again Griphook did say the change would be gradual. It felt a little strange to suddenly find out you weren't what you thought you were, but at the same time, Holly didn't feel all that attached to being a boy. He was already calling themselves Holly in their head. He supposed that meant their relatives couldn't keep calling them 'Boy' all the time.

Holly froze. He had completely forgotten about their relatives. How could he go back to the Dursleys like this? Just the change in hair color would be bad enough but if he were to slowly change into a girl... Holly highly doubted he would actually live to reach Hogwarts.

Hagrid suddenly giving Holly a small shake brought them out of their gloom and he found themselves standing outside of a store with various robes on display. The name 'Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions' adorned the front of the store. Holly entered alone upon Hagrid's statement of needing a drink to calm down after the minecarts in the bank.

Stepping into the robe shop Holly glanced around for only a few moments before being dragged over to be fitted beside a boy with platinum blonde hair and an expression on his face that made Holly think he thought himself exceedingly important. She doubted he really was and decided to try to just ignore him. She was so focused on that she didn't even notice the subtle change in her thoughts in regards to herself.

The boy, looking over at her, gave her a quick up and down before looking at her like she was dirt. "Red hair and clothes like a beggar," his sneer needed work. "You must be a Weasley."

"A what?" Holly wasn't entirely sure that was some kind of slur but the boy sure made it sound like it was with the venom that he said it with.

"A Weasley. What, you lot so poor you can't even pay attention?"

'Okay, wow, this kid is needlessly antagonistic,' thought Holly. 'Maybe he was traumatized by someone with red hair or something.' The strange blonde didn't say much else to Holly after that and she was pretty okay with that arrangement. She managed to finish getting fitted before the boy, even after whispering to the woman doing the fitting that she needed extra robes in a female cut. She didn't know how long this 'gradual change' would take, so better to be safe than sorry and get both. Not like she was wanting for money anymore, after all.

Upon exiting the robe shop Hagrid was waiting with ice cream, only the second time Holly had ever had it. After finishing it, thanking Hagrid more than once for the treat, the two of them proceeded to hunt down everything. The last thing Holly needed was a wand, so with Hagrid going off on his own again, Holly ventured into Ollivander's alone.

"Quite the situation you seem to find yourself in, Ms. Potter."

Holly nearly jumped out of her own skin as the old man appeared seemingly from thin air right next to her. After letting her heart slow down to healthy levels again Holly processed what who she assumed Mr. Ollivander was said.

"A situation, sir?"

"Yes. Caught in between two places, an unfortunate position to be in, to be sure." Holly really wasn't sure how to respond to that, so she just gave a small nod. There was a tense and somewhat awkward pause before Ollivander moved deeper into the shop and began the process of finding a wand for Holly.

* * *

Holly fell down onto the bed of the rented room of the Leaky Cauldron. She stared up at the ceiling before drawing their hand up to look at the wand that finally, finally chose them after nearly two hours of trying out wand after wand. 11 inches, Holly wood with a core of phoenix feather. Holly felt a particular interest because the wood was their namesake. There was that hitch with it being the brother to the wand of the man who murdered her entire family, though. Taking a few minutes of staring at their wand Holly let her gaze slide to the side to fall on the beautiful snowy owl that Hagrid got her as her first birthday present ever. She hadn't thought of a name for the creature yet, but maybe she'd find something in one of her school books.

Letting her arm drop back down Holly stared back up at the ceiling. Here she was in a rented room because she could never go back to her cozy little cupboard under the stairs. It was an interesting feeling, both being unable to return to a place she hated, but also being entirely with anywhere to go. To be honest, Holly didn't really know how to feel about it. On top of that, she was a girl now. A girl. What even was different so far?

Rolling out of bed Holly made her way to the bathroom and pulled off her shirt. The first thing that jumped out at her was her hair. It was a wine-red color that for some reason made her think of flashes of green light. Pushing that out of her thoughts though she scanned the rest of her body. Ignoring the scars that littered her torso, mostly her back, she didn't really notice all that much different. Maybe she wasn't even really old enough for her torso to have changed yet anyway? Everything lower than that felt generally the same. Maybe the goblins were just playing a trick on her? Then again, she'd been calling herself 'her' in her head longer than she'd even realized she had been. Maybe this gradual thing meant it started with her mind?

With a sigh, Holly wandered back over to her bed, put her shirt back on and sat down. She looked down at the shirt and pants. Dudley's shirt and pants, actually. Holly didn't really have any clothes all her own until now, and it was just her Hogwarts uniform. She could afford clothes now though, and she was right next to a major shopping center both muggle and magical.

If she went out to shop for clothes though, would she buy male or female clothes? She had lived as a boy all her life and it didn't make sense to her why she should suddenly be so okay with becoming a girl. Even if she was still mostly a boy, physically speaking, she already felt different than she had when she last woke up, living with the Dursleys.

Her mind suddenly made up Holly jumped to her feet and collected her bag with the galleons she had remaining. She wouldn't worry about it. Maybe that was basically like being in denial, but she would just buy what looked good and to hell with it. With a smile, she gave her currently unnamed owl a quick goodbye and a pat on the head and made her way out the door, down the stairs and through the barrier to Diagon Alley.

* * *

It was August 30th, two days before Holly needed to be at King's Cross to board the Hogwarts Express. She'd read through a good bit of their school books and had even ventured back to Flourish and Blotts for a few other books for more detailed information about certain things. She'd gotten a bit bored though, to be honest. She had never huge into reading so she decided that today after dinner she would explore Diagon Alley at night.

Holly was starting to look a bit more girly recently as well. Their hopelessly messy hair had calmed down, if only slightly, and had lightened even more into a shade of wine-red color that she got more than a couple compliments on. It was extremely weird for Holly to get such a thing and she still wasn't entirely sure the people giving them weren't actually making fun of her somehow.

She'd noticed a few other small things, but nothing overly substantial. The biggest changes were mostly just having to get used to people treating her like a girl after introducing herself as Holly. If she was being honest she was extremely nervous to give her real name to anyone, but nothing untoward had happened so far. She'd also grown her hair out some with a hair growth potion she'd purchased. It now fell just shy of her shoulders in a sort of messy bob. Holly quite liked her hair, it was the most obviously different part of her so far and it reminded her the least of being a freak like her relatives always called her.

Walking down Diagon Alley a few minutes after the sun had set was an entirely different feeling than during the day. There was a store here or there that was open but for the most part, they all seemed closed. It wasn't long during their nocturnal exploration that she came upon a place marked with a sign that had them chuckling.

"Nocturn Alley? Well with a name like that I have to go in during my nocturnally timed exploring now don't I?" Maybe Holly was spending a little too much time alone with only Hedwig (she finally got around to naming their lovely owl) and should try to make a friend or something. "Then again, who'd want to be friends with me?"

Self-deprecating monologue aside Holly wandered into the dingy looking alley that cut off in a different direction than most of Diagon Alley. Was this place just as big as Diagon Alley was? Were there other alleys around? With a name like Nocturn Alley maybe it was a place that was magically sealed except at night? No, she could have sworn she'd seen the entrance here during the day.

With the warning of a short-fused bomb, Holly's silent musings and idle browsing of shop windows of macabre things came to an abrupt end. Very strong arms roughly pinned Holly to the wall hard enough to cause her head to smack it. Dazed and alarmed Holly did her best to try to kick at her assailant but could only manage to scuff up their shoes at best. Calling for help didn't seem to be doing any good either, there wasn't anybody else around except a few cloaked figures down a distance that was apparently too far for them to care to clear. Unknown to Holly nobody would hear them scream even two meters away, as just before she were pushed against the wall a silencing ward had been put up.

"Shh, this will only hurt for a minute, then you'll be able to sleep," the voice immediately gave away that her assailant was a man but that did little to comfort Holly. She soon found herself far too terrified to scream as the man pressed her even more into the wall with most of his body. She'd overheard things on the news from her cupboard what strange men did to girls, and her fears only compounded as she felt a sharp pain in her neck. Was he injecting her with some kind of drug?

Suddenly Holly found her hand gripping something. Her knife! How did it get into her hand, she could have sworn it was in her boot? It didn't matter, she needed to do something before this creep made off with her unconscious body. Doing little more than sharply raising her hand she aimed for what she assumed was her assailant's hand at her neck injecting Merlin knew what into her. She was somewhat surprised to find that her mark was distinctly head shaped and was soon swearing up a storm.

Acting quickly on her grasp of the initiative Holly spun around and thrust her dagger as hard as she could into her assailant's stomach, since it was a large target nearer to her height than his heart, and bolted as fast as she could. She ran and ran, ignoring the searing pain in her neck and the burning ache in her legs and the stitch in her side. Holly ran until she made it to the Leaky Cauldron. Once inside she collapsed to the floor, gasping for breath as Tom the barman rounded the bar to check on her.

"What in Merlin's name..." was all she heard him say. A hand on her neck let her know she was bleeding badly and some of it was probably that man's, so there was even more than there should be just from her. She felt cold from the blood loss and the edges of her vision were darkening.

Holly muttered out an "I hope that guy didn't have any diseases," before everything went black.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Harry Potter, its copyright, trademarks, characters, and everything else part of it fictionally and legally are all owned by J.K. Rowling. This fanfiction gives me no monetary gain of any kind and in no way reflects the views, thoughts, or anything else of Ms. Rowling. It's just something I'm doing for fun.

* * *

Holly awoke to someone gently shaking them by the shoulder. Opening her eyes to her softly lit room at the Leaky Cauldron she turned her head to see who was shaking her. That turned out to be a mistake, as her head immediately began to swim and she thought she was going to be sick. She did her best to collect herself as she heard Tom speak to her from nearby.

"Sorry to have to wake you," Tom began. "It's the first and you should probably be getting ready to leave for the Hogwarts express soon."

Was it the first? Didn't Holly last wake up on the 30th of August? That would mean she missed an entire day! How in the world could she sleep through a whole day? Her answer came to the front of her mind as her memories of the previous night came flooding back.

"What happened?" was all Holly could manage to get out with a hoarse croak.

"Ye gave us quite the fright coming in covered in blood the other night. There was a healer from St. Mungo's in the pub when ye came in that saw to you. Couldn't find nothin' wrong with ye that would account for all the blood but..." Tom was giving Holly a very concerned look as he trailed off.

Managing to sit up after the room stopped spinning Holly gave her neck a quick inspection where the man from the other night did whatever it was that he did. Glancing back to Tom she prompted him to continue "but?"

"I don't mean to pry, and there isn't any reason you have to tell me, but we've at least gotten to be better than strangers over the last month. The healer found signs, a lot of signs, that you haven't been properly taken care of. She and I agree that you might want to heavily consider telling the healer there, Poppy Pomfrey, about all of it at the very least."

Holly had found her lap to be a very interesting thing to stare at while Tom was talking and could only give him a small nod. He told her the Hogwarts express left in only a few hours and that after she was done getting ready that he'd let her use the floo to get there if she still wasn't feeling well.

Climbing out of bed shortly after Tom left Holly took a quick shower and found herself in a dilemma. She'd purchased both the male and female uniform for Hogwarts, but now that it came time to actually put it on she was at a loss as to which one she should wear. Thoughts about how she should feel about all this gender stuff from earlier in the month started to surface again and she placed both uniforms side by side on her bed to inspect both.

Holly stood there staring at both garments long enough that Tom had come round to knock and make sure she was alright. Finally, she decided that as long as she was wearing what counted as the uniform in one shape or another. So Holly took the bottom half of the male uniform and the top half of the female uniform and put that on under the robe. She felt it was quite a good compromise. If she was breaking any rules or anything she would deal with that when she got to Hogwarts and decide then.

* * *

Fallout out of the floo and landing in an extremely ungraceful heap Holly immediate swore that she would never ever use the floo again unless it was absolutely necessary. That was just an awful way of travel. Getting to her feet she stepped out of the way of the fireplace on the platform and started to brush herself off.

Her attempts at cleaning herself of soot were quickly interrupted by the bright red train that dominated the view in front of her. It was magnificent and seemed almost to glow with the brightness of the red color it had. That color had her oddly transfixed, actually, as she just stood there and stared.

"Hey, I said are you okay?" a slightly raised voice just to Holly's left had her jumping out of surprise, breaking her from her trance. Turning her head she had to look up to see the face of an older woman with long blonde hair looking at Holly with mild concern.

"I'm sorry," Holly stammered out. "Just got a bit lost in thought. Was I in your way?"

"No, dear, you're fine," the woman reassured Holly. "I just saw you fall out of the floo and wanted to make sure you're okay. I don't see anyone here with you, where are your parents?"

Holly fidgeted and looked away from the woman's face. She saw two girls around her age behind the woman and could feel a small warmth creep up her neck. "T-they're dead, ma'am," Holly answered. The woman winced before giving Holly a warm smile.

"Well, Hannah and her friend Susan here are first years as well and would be happy to help you get sorted away on the train." The woman turned to gesture to the two girls behind her. They were the same age as Holly but upon stepping closer, Holly couldn't help but notice that both of them were a surprising amount taller than her.

The two girls introduced themselves as Hannah Abbott, a girl with long, straight blonde hair, and Susan Bones, with dark strawberry blonde hair in a plait that went about halfway down her back. Holly simply introduced herself as Holly and was lead over to the Hogwarts express to witness Hannah say goodbye to the woman who Holly now noticed looked a lot like her. Probably her mother, Holly thought. Holly needed some help getting her trunk onto the train but could get away with dragging it down the corridor until they came to an empty compartment.

Holly all but fell into one of the seats after her trunk was squared away. She was feeling a little dizzy and felt very tired even after having slept away the entire previous day. Maybe she was sick? That guy that attacked her must have been diseased or something after all. Hopefully, it wasn't anything serious. It probably wasn't the lack of food since the day before last, she was used to going much longer without than that.

"Feeling okay?" the girl with the darker hair, Susan, asked.

"Fine, yeah. Just a bit dizzy," Holly answered simply.

"Alright, just say something if you need anything."

Holly was rather shy at first, but after the first hour or so after the train pulled out of the station she was starting to open up a little. She had some trouble keeping up with more than a few things but did her best to be friendly. She learned quite a lot about the two other girls as well. She had a shocking amount in common with Susan, too.

"So," Hannah began around the hour and a half mark. "You said your parents weren't around anymore on the platform. Who do you live with?"

"Normally my aunt and uncle, but I actually spent the last month or so at the Leaky Cauldron," Holly rubbed the back of her head a bit sheepish.

"Why did you stay there so long?" Susan asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Um... My relatives don't really like magic so I figured I'd just stay out of their hair. They were probably thankful I wasn't around anyway."

Susan and Hannah gave each other a weird look that Holly didn't really know the meaning of after that. Did she say something weird? Before Holly could add anything else or be asked something more the door to their compartment slid up rather violently. Standing there in the opening was a rather tall boy with red hair and freckles. He seemed to only be paying attention to the girls' foreheads but didn't seem to find what he was looking for and slammed the door shut in a huff.

"That was odd," Susan commented before rounding back on Holly. "Anyway, I live with my aunt, too. The rest of my family was killed by You-Know-Who back during the war." There was a bit of an awkward pause as nobody really knew what else to say for a moment.

Just as Susan was going to start explaining that her aunt was the head of the DMLE their compartment door opened yet again. This time it was much more subdued, but the bushy-haired girl standing there looked a bit bossier than the red-haired boy. "Have any of you need a toad? A boy named Neville lost his."

The three of them shook their heads in a negative response before Susan offered to help find it. So Hannah and Holly were drafted into the toad hunting squad for the better part of an hour. They didn't have any sort of luck finding it, but they got to meet quite a few people. Holly saw that rude blonde haired boy she ran into at Madam Malkin's and learned his name was Draco Malfoy. He continued to prove his rude nature knew no bounds when he badmouthed Susan's Aunt.

Holly had to take a few breaks during their search to catch her breath or let the corridor around her stop spinning. Each time Susan and Hannah asked if she was okay, but Holly just said she was fine only to earn looks of growing concern. It was probably this that had the trio cutting their assistance to Neville and the bushy-haired Hermione short and returning to their compartment. Holly told them she was fine to return alone but they didn't seem to be having any of that.

It gave Holly a weird warm feeling to already have made two friends before she even got to Hogwarts.

* * *

Holly followed Susan and Hannah into the great hall as they were led by Professor McGonagall. She couldn't help but stare at the impressive ceiling as they made their way towards a stool with a hat on it. She heard Hermione somewhere behind her start explaining about what she read about the ceiling in a book. She wondered if it was possible to charm any ceiling like that and how hard it would be. It was probably pretty hard if it was worth mentioning in a history book. She didn't think any other ceiling had ever garnered such attention before.

At the sudden sound of music, Holly was almost tempted cover her ears at the somewhat off-key singing of the ratty old hat on the stool. She found

the song somewhat informative at least, though it didn't seem to have as many details about each house as she had read in her own perusal of the book Hermione had just mentioned, Hogwarts: A History.

It was soon enough that the song was over and Hannah was the very first name called up to be sorted. She and Susan both ended up going to Hufflepuff. Hermione somehow got sent to Gryffindor and the rude Malfoy boy was sent to Slytherin. Well, that settled that, Holly wasn't even going to entertain the thought of wanting to be in that house. She did rather like their colors though.

Suddenly Holly was struck with a very worrying thought. What would happen if she went up after the name Harry Potter was called? She told her two new friends, her only friends in the whole world that she was a girl named Holly. Would they call her a liar and stop being her friend? How would the rest of the school react to her not actually being a Harry anymore, but a Holly? Would they kick her out? She really, really didn't want to go back to her cupboard!

Finally, she heard Professor McGonagall call it out. "Potter, Harry!" and the room went dead silent. Everyone was looking around trying to find the boy-who-lived. What should Holly do? She was frozen in place, her heart doing its damnedest to migrate into her throat. The name was called again but still, all she could do was stand there and try to remember how to breathe again.

Then a very interesting thing happened. Professor McGonagall called out, in a moderately surprised tone "Potter, Holly!"

She was on there! She didn't need to reveal her old name! How was she there though? Even more pressing, how was she there and still so was the name Harry? Whatever the case, Holly made her way up to the hat. The entire hall was whispering when Holly sat down. McGonagall placed the hat upon her head and she found she couldn't see anything as it fell to cover her eyes.

"Ah, interesting, very interesting," came a voice in Holly's head.

Was that the hat? It not only sang badly but talked inside your head, too?

"I heard that you know. Not nearly as polite in your own head as you are with words, are you?"

Holly did her best to stammer out an apology to the weird telepathic hat, then apologized again for thinking of it as weird.

"Not a problem. You wouldn't be the first by far. Not nearly as many apologize for it though. Let's get you sorted though, hm? You seem to be going through quite an interesting phase of your life right now, Ms. Potter. I don't just mean your recent gender issues, either. I suspect you will soon know exactly what your situation is though if you don't already."

Holly was trying to figure out what other things the hat could possibly be talking about. If it was something she didn't know about yet that meant it couldn't be coming from the muggle world to the magical. She also wondered what this had to do with being sorted.

"Right you are, it doesn't. Not really, anyway. You're quite the sharp one, though don't seem to have the love of learning quite needed to get by in Rowena's House. Bravery in spades, but is it really bravery or just not understanding the danger you're in? Perhaps just a propensity to not care about your safety on a subconscious level.

"You're quite the hard worker, all those chores heaped upon you but still you did your best with them. Far too kind for what you have been handed as well. You will have to rely on your fellows quite a bit. So focused on those new friends of yours already as well. As much as I want to put you in Slytherin where you could be so great I feel that will break an important part of you. So, let it be HUFFLEPUFF!"

The final word of the hat's muttering was yelled loud for all to hear and Holly couldn't help but grin just a little bit. She managed to avoid the house with the rude Malfoy boy and got placed with her two friends as well. She hopped off the stool and handed the hat back to Professor McGonagall. As she did so she couldn't help but notice the people behind the woman.

The man in the center of the staff table that Holly could only assume was Headmaster Dumbledore was giving her an odd look of interest with a pair of twinkling eyes. Looking into them made her head hurt a little, so she let her eyes quickly drift away. She also noticed the purple donned professor she ran into at the Leaky Cauldron with Hagrid sitting next to a professor with greasy black hair that was giving her a look that made her distinctly uncomfortable.

She turned her back to the staff table and carefully made her way to sit beside Susan, who was next to Hannah at the Hufflepuff table. There seemed to be a lot of whispers about her going on all around, but the most she could catch of them were a few people wondering who she was and if she was related to the boy-who-lived. Maybe she could pretend to be the sister of Harry Potter? Would that make things easier or just draw unwanted attention to her?

* * *

When the food appeared in a way that could only be done by magic Holly was surprised to find that she wasn't as hungry as she thought she would be. If anything she found herself feeling more thirsty than anything else. So she reached out for the goblet that was placed nearest her plate and smelled the odd bright orange liquid inside. It smelled distinctly of pumpkin and made Holly wonder how exactly one got juice from a pumpkin of all things.

She didn't really care how they got the juice after she took a sip of though. All she wanted was for it to be out of her mouth as fast as possible. With a choked gagging she said, "What in the hell is this stuff?"

"Language," chided someone a few seats down with a badge with a 'P' on it.

Susan explained with an amused smile that it was pumpkin juice and that it tended to be rather sweet. She said it was something of a Hogwarts tradition but they had other drinks as well. Holly hoped any other fruit juices they had actually tasted like the fruit they were from instead of dust and ash. She swore now that she'd tried it she felt even more thirsty, too, somehow.

The goblet quickly refilled itself with some plain water and Holly was glad that she could at least swallow that. It didn't really make her feel any better having done so though. Placing some roast chicken on her plate, as well as a few other things that looked like they would be tasty Holly happily speared a bite of her chicken. Placing it into her mouth she couldn't help but start to gag from an even stronger flavor of dust and ash. She really wanted to spit it out, and the people sitting across from her at the table were giving her odd looks as well. She didn't want to make the really nice looking cloth napkins dirty though so she decided to deal with it and swallow the single bite of... 'Food.'

"Are you okay?" Susan asked her face full of concern. Holly tried to respond but could only manage to start choking and coughing after the bite of food went down. The person on the opposite side of Holly than Susan tried smacking Holly in the back like that would help with something but all it managed to do was cause one of the past injuries on it to flare with pain.

Holly somehow managed to power through her food's attempt to remove itself from inside her through her mouth and keep it down. She was shaking and looked pale with a green tint to her face. One of the prefects got up to try to give Holly some form of comfort while another walked up to the staff table to get Madam Pomfrey. It wasn't but a moment until the mediwitch was at Holly's side.

Susan and the prefect trying to comfort Holly did their best to give Pomfrey the situation. Susan helpfully offered up that Holly was feeling dizzy and seemed really tired on the train as well. The mediwitch had heard enough at that point and started leading Holly to the hospital wing. She didn't get five steps before Holly lost the fight to not puke. Between the dizzy feeling from standing up and the disgusting food she just ate what little she had in her came back up.

Poppy quickly vanished the mess before putting Holly, who had collapsed to a sitting position with her legs to either side of her, on a stretcher transfigured from a plate. Holly was feeling particularly awful about having gotten sick at the welcoming feat of all places. She so rarely got sick, too. Maybe that was why she didn't like the food so much. Stupid sick man that bled all over her. She was so stupid to have gone out at night alone. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

* * *

Poppy Pomfrey didn't often have to deal with sick children on the very first night they got here, but at least it didn't seem anything particularly serious at first glance. She hoped that would stay the truth, but looking at the suspiciously tiny form she was currently placing in one of her hospital wing beds she wasn't so sure. She sat the tiny girl up on the bed and began asking a few basic questions and performing diagnostic spells with her wand.

As surprised at what she found she soon learned the most surprising part of her findings was even more surprising to her patient. "How long have you been a vampire?" At least, she assumed it was surprise that made her faint.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Harry Potter, its copyright, trademarks, characters, and everything else part of it fictionally and legally are all owned by J.K. Rowling. This fanfiction gives me no monetary gain of any kind and in no way reflects the views, thoughts, or anything else of Ms. Rowling. It's just something I'm doing for fun.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore sat behind his desk in a contemplative mood. This was turning out to be a lot more complected than he had originally planned. Harry Potter had not only turned up disguised as a girl but somehow got their fake name accepted by Hogwarts without getting rid of their real name. Not just that, but they also turned up as a very recently turned vampire.

It wasn't starting off quite like how Albus thought it would, but so far there wasn't anything that he couldn't adapt to yet. The rest of Poppy's report though worried Albus. Even more, it shocked Albus that someone who had such clear and severe signs of abuse could end up in Hufflepuff. He had already asked The Sorting Hat why he placed the boy there, but all he was told was it was the safest choice.

That had worried Albus greatly until he reasoned that the hat probably meant something along the lines of the best place to heal and be accepted for what the boy had gone through. The alternative certainly needed to be watched for and nipped in the bud as soon as possible. Albus wasn't going to have another Tom Riddle on his hands with young Mr. Potter. They certainly doubted a dark lord to rise from Hufflepuff, but better to try to limit the growth of any dark powers that might come from this affliction young Harry has picked up.

* * *

Holly opened her eyes to see a white ceiling above her. She wasn't familiar with this ceiling so quickly shot up too look around and see where she was. Her quick actions elicited a surprised reaction from the three being near her bed.

There was a ruffling of feathers from the bedpost immediately to her right, a quick glance confirmed that it was Hedwig. To her left came two small yelps, turning back the other way revealed the yelps to have come from Susan and Hannah. It made Holly feel a little fuzzy to see them here. Any warm feelings were quickly washed away by a wave of cold down her spine when she remembers why she was here in the hospital wing.

"Feeling any better? You kind of scared us yesterday, ya know?" Susan gave Holly a small smile.

"Yeah, pretty much the entire school saw everything. Most of Gryffindor is convinced you were poisoned somehow. The rest are trying to figure out if you're the boy-who-lived's wife or sister," Hannah rolled her eyes, not voicing the more outrageous things some people were saying.

Holly wondered if maybe she could get away with saying she was the sister of Harry Potter. If there was already a rumor about it that could make it easier to do. She didn't like the idea of lying to her only two friends though. Maybe just they could know the truth?

Before Holly could make a choice one way or the other Madam Pomfrey arrived holding a tray with a bowl of something on it. "Breakfast, dear," she said with a pointed look at Holly before sliding her eyes over to the two guests before moving back to Holly. The healer's meaning quickly donned on Holly, followed shortly by the horror of what that actually meant after getting news that she was a vampire last night. Would she have to attack a live animal or something for food? How could she send her friends away so they didn't have to watch that? Were vampires actually common enough in this magical world that it was okay? The only thing she knew about vampires was that they died in sunlight and drank blood. Until last night she didn't even know they were actually real.

Holly's horrified thoughts came to an abrupt end when Madam Pomfrey placed the tray on the bed beside Holly's leg. It looked like the bowl was just full of tomato soup. She'd even put a couple slices of toast on the tray to keep up the illusion, too. If Holly hadn't been petrified the moment she got wind of what the bowl smelled like she would have been fooled, too.

* * *

Susan Bones was more than just a little bit worried about her newest friend. The girl seemed to be having problems but was powering through on the train yesterday, but today they looked downright deathly. They looked very pale and in the hospital gown, they were dressed in because their ropes had gotten a mess last night she could clearly see more than a couple scars on her back, shoulders, and arms.

Not only that, but Holly had told Hannah and her that she hadn't eaten anything the day before or of the train ride to Hogwarts. They certainly didn't have anything at dinner and now they were so visibly hungry that she stared at the food the healer brought her like if she looked away it would disappear.

A small part of Susan was worried if whatever Holly was sick with was contagious, but there were other, larger parts of her that were wondering much more pressing matters. Besides, if Holly was at risk of making others sick Madam Pomfrey would have kicked them out the moment she showed up.

At least Holly was getting something to eat, finally. The poor girl was so hungry she was practically licking her bowl clean.

* * *

Holly lay in her hospital wing bed staring at the ceiling mortified with herself. Susan and Hannah had left to get their own breakfast in the great hall so she was alone with Hedwig while Madam Pomfrey said she would be back in a few minutes.

"I just ate (drank?) an entire bowl of blood, Hedwig," Holly mumbled. Hedwig answered with a barking sound.

"I'm some kinda bloody – Arg! I'm a goddamn monster of some kind, girl."

Another bark, followed by a short series of them.

"No, eating something whole doesn't count for drinking its blood."

More barks, the last few as if they were trying to be whispered.

"Alright, maybe you have some kind of a point. Eating or drinking blood from a bowl isn't actually that bad when you take into account things like black pudding or something. I'm also sorry if I implied you were a monster because you ate whole small animals."

An indignant bark.

"Alright, alright, you're the most fearsome monster there ever was, you raptor. The bogeyman hides under the bed to get away from you."

Holly swore Hedwig's acceptance of her apology was the smuggest thing she'd ever heard. Her owl was an egomaniac. She just hoped her head didn't get so big she couldn't fly. Holly chatted a bit more with Hedwig before being interrupted by Madam Pomfrey returning.

"Aren't suffering any hallucinations are we, dear?" Pomfrey asked in only a semi-humorous tone.

"No, Ma'am," Holly answered, sitting up. "Just chatting with Hedwig. I've agreed to her demands of all the bacon I can't eat anymore and am trying to talk her out of bringing me small animals that she catches to see what kind of thing I like drinking from most."

Poppy gave Holly's owl a strange look before giving that same look to Holly with a raised eyebrow. She handed Holly a slip of parchment and informed her of a few things. "That is your class schedule. You are excused from any class circled until we can square away any problems you might have with sunlight. I believe Filius is working on something that will assist you in that regard."

"So do I actually burn up in the sun?" Holly asked with a dejected tone while looking at her schedule.

"Not if you don't stand in it for long and are properly fed," Poppy answered. She then handed over a tightly rolled scroll of parchment. "This is all the information on vampires that has been confirmed by the ministry. Make sure you read it over very thoroughly."

Holly gave a curt nod and accepted the scroll. "Is there anything else or am I allowed to go now, Ma'am?"

"Yes, you may go, but don't expect I will allow anything of what I've learned about your condition to go without the proper attention." Holly was slightly worried but also relieved by what that could mean. She quickly got changed into her now clean clothing and made her way to her first class.

* * *

It wasn't until halfway through Transfiguration that Holly couldn't stand it any longer. She had no idea why but her hand had felt like it was in a fire that had slowly grown hotter and hotter as the class went on. Worse yet, she had started strong with a silver match, then a sharp silver match, then at her zenith a silver toothpick. After that, though, she had steadily gotten worse and worse as the pain in her hand did the same.

Finally, all she could do was drop her hand from a shaking hand that hadn't been able to even get her match to waver anymore. A small whimper drew Susan and Hannah's attention and their gasps drew Professor McGonagall. Holly's hand was somewhat swollen and looked like she'd grabbed a hot metal rod and not let go for far too long. A long burn that got worse the nearer to the center of the mark adorned her palm right where her wand had rested. There was even a very thin line of skin that had been charred black. That happening is what finally got through to Holly that something was very wrong.

"Ms. Potter! What in Merlin's name happened?" McGonagall was gently cradling Holly's hand in hers. All Holly could manage was a shake of her head as she tried to fight back tears. She wasn't going to cry in front of her classmates. Why did everything bad have to happen to her?

It wasn't long before Holly was once again on route to the hospital wing. This time she was being escorted by Susan, who just happened to be the one sitting nearest. When they arrived Holly sat on the edge of the bed she'd woken up in that morning while Susan went to Madam Pomfrey's office to get her.

Holly carefully retrieved the scroll of vampire information that she was given with the goal to see if there was anything that explained what had happened in there. This didn't happen to anyone else so it must be the cause, right? Immediately after starting to read the scroll Holly could only groan at her stupidity. The first thing it said, the _very first entry_ told her to be very careful when handling wands for prolonged periods of time. That if she felt any burning sensation that she should stop touching her wand and count to ten and that doing so would remove any risks of holding it too long. Apparently, she would eventually build up a tolerance to magical woods as she handled her wand more, but until she did there was a big risk of burning herself and the core of her wan-

Wait, _what!?_

Holly scrambled to pull her wand out with her left, undamaged, hand. She waved it around like she did in Ollivander's shop, trying to get the same sparks she did back then. When nothing happened she waved the damn thing around like if she didn't get sparks she would die. What did happen made her feel even worse than nothing happening though. With one final flick, the wood split and smoke poured from inside the wand.

* * *

Poppy Pomfrey entered her hospital wing knowing of a burn with an expectation that it was a student from potions. When she found Holly who had been in her care less than two hours ago with no visible injuries of any kind in a crumpled, crying heap on the floor she was at a little bit of a loss. The smoking, smoldering stick on the floor near them had her at even more of a loss.

Ms. Bones helped clear up quite a bit of that confusion with her gasp and exclamation of "Holly! What happened to your wand?" The poor thing on the floor did little more than hug herself more tightly.

"Ms. Bones, please return to class," Poppy instructed before levitating Holly onto the bed nearest them. With some forceful prompting Poppy managed to get the girl to drink a calming draught before stepping away to floo call the headmaster.

* * *

Holly wasn't sure what it was that Madam Pomfrey made her drink but she was glad she did. Well, she wasn't happy about it, she was actually feeling rather numb. She knew she was upset that her wand, her beautiful holly wood wand was no more, but she couldn't feel it. She sat there on the bed looking around the hospital wing. Susan had been told to leave, but she was still standing just near the door. Staring at her for some time Holly couldn't help but notice how Susan looked.

Obviously, Susan looked very worried and concerned, but beyond that Holly took note that she was actually pretty cute. She was way too young to think much beyond that, but it was enough for her to idly wonder if her finding girls cute would gradually fade into thinking boys were cute instead as she turned more into a girl. It probably wasn't important, it wasn't like anyone would find her cute back, after all.

Holly's thoughts were interrupted by Susan clearing the distance between them and gingerly sitting on the bed next to her. "You know," Susan began in a low voice. "For a while, I thought we were pretty similar. Both living with our aunts and having lost our parents to you-know-who and all that. I'm starting to think you might have it worse though."

"Your attempt at humor is appreciated, but needs work," Holly said in a deadpan voice.

"Sorry," Susan said. She sat there in silence for a few moments before hesitantly giving Holly a hug. "You can get a new wand, you know. I know it won't be quite the same, but who knows, maybe there's one out there that will match you even better than your last one."

Holly wasn't sure what to do in the position she found herself in just then. She'd never been hugged before. Was she supposed to return it? It felt kind of odd, truth be told. Not exactly in a bad way, but for some reason it made her chest feel tight. She was saved having to figure out how to properly return the hug by Susan pulling away, leaving a hand on her shoulder.

"Your bag is just over there," Susan gestured to the next bed over. "Is there anything you want me to get from it? A book or... When I'm feeling sad I have a picture of my mom and dad holding me back when I was just a little baby. Is there anything like that you want?"

Holly was just about to tell Susan that there wasn't anything she had at all to remember her parents by, but she was stopped by a sudden weight in her pocket. Reaching in she pulled out the stiletto dagger that once belonged to her mom. Now that she looked at it, the dagger was very long and narrow and tapered to a point. It was clearly magical and felt as much an extension of something inside of her as her wand, if not more. It even kind of looked a bit like a sharp, metal wand. Trying to think of one of the simple spells she read about in her charms book while staying in the Leaky Cauldron Holly thought this was a long shot, but maybe...

"Holly...?" Susan's voice was full of concern and just a touch of horror as she watched Holly stare a little too hard at a blade that she pulled out of her pocket. She knew Holly had had a couple of difficult days, but surely it wasn't so bad that she needed too...

"Lumos," Holly said firmly and with purpose. Any thoughts that Susan had stopped like they'd run into a brick wall as she watched the tip of Holly's knife glow with a small light. It wasn't the most powerful Lumos she'd seen, but it was without a doubt very much there.

"Well, that certainly takes care of any issues of lacking a wand, I believe," came the voice of Albus Dumbledore.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Harry Potter, its copyright, trademarks, characters, and everything else part of it fictionally and legally are all owned by J.K. Rowling. This fanfiction gives me no monetary gain of any kind and in no way reflects the views, thoughts, or anything else of Ms. Rowling. It's just something I'm doing for fun.

* * *

Holly nearly growled in frustration, drawing the attention of her roommates. Susan started trying once again to console Holly, Hannah offering a bit of aid in that endeavor. Leanne just shook her head a little and went back to working on her essay. Megan Jones gave Holly's knife, wand, thing a wary look and did her best to ignore Holly. They all shared a large room with a bed for each of them, so it was common that they were all there or in the common room doing homework or some such together.

"Don't worry about it too much, Holly," went Susan's consoling. "I've never heard of anybody being able to use a knife as a wand before, you just need to figure out the trick to getting it to work best for you and you'll be right as rain."

"Yeah, just because you have a hard time with things doesn't mean it's all bad with this wand stand-in of yours," Hannah added. "You're way more accurate and detailed in what you've managed. It's just getting things to have a bit more 'oomph' that needs to be worked on."

Holly just sighed dejectedly. Letting her arm fall to her side she could almost swear her stiletto dagger felt just as frustrated as she did. That both worried her and made her feel just a little bit better. It had only been a week since Headmaster Dumbledore had seen her cast a _Lumos_ in the hospital wing and she was already wishing she'd just gotten a replacement wand instead of this. Hannah wasn't wrong in her assessment of what Holly was experiencing, either.

The dagger, for all that it looked like a sharp, stylized wand, it behaved much more different than what her original holly wood wand did. In Transfiguration, she had been the first one to get the hang of things and had the most detailed transfigurations by far. However, she always took the longest to actually _do_ the transfiguration. Once someone else, like that Hermione girl from Gryffindor, got the hang of a particular transfiguration she could do it nigh on instantly. Holly, on the other hand, transfigured things in about as many seconds as something had square inches.

Her weird troubles weren't just in Transfiguration, either. In Charms, she could levitate a feather with nearly the same precision as Professor Flitwick, but she could only ever move it as fast as she could crawl with two broken legs. Her _Lumos_ was dim but she could make it nearly any color she could see, and maybe even some she couldn't, though she couldn't really test that.

Defense was taught by a joke and the teacher gave Holly a splitting headache if she spent more than a couple of minutes in his presence. She was seriously considering just skipping the class and studying the book. Besides, being able to land her stinging hex that they'd learned on a knut from across half a room didn't really mean much if all it could do was feel like someone was poking you with a spoon.

At least Holly seemed about on par with most others in classes that didn't need a wand. Professor Snape acted very strangely around her, though. Ignoring her when she was looking at him, but staring at her in a very creepy way when she wasn't. Susan and Hannah had told her about that. Herbology was pretty fun, even though it reminded her of being forced to do all the gardening at the Dursleys that was one of the few chores she didn't really mind overly much. History of Magic had been renamed 'nap time' by basically everybody, her included. Astronomy was interesting if only because it was one of the only classes besides Potions that she didn't have to worry in the slightest about the sun in.

Actually, Holly was beyond grateful that she could even go to classes like Herbology. Professor Flitwick had managed to make a little locket for her that protected her rather well from the sun. It wasn't perfect, but it helped immensely. Rather than getting a slight burning sensation that quickly got worse before her skin started to turn to ash, she instead just felt a bit warm. The burning sensation did eventually come, but only after about an hour and a half. She could make it through Herbology like that. The one double-length class they'd had had her leaving early, though.

Today though, Tuesday the 10th, was going to be a bit special. Holly, however, couldn't participate in the special thing. Flying lessons had sounded exceedingly interesting to the young girl, but when she learned that it was done on broomstick she immediately felt disappointed. She had time since the destruction of her wand to read the scroll on vampire stuff Madam Pomfrey had given her.

The first entry on that scroll had been about magical wood. As it was, she could handle a wand that wasn't being used for magic for maybe an hour, tops. If it was in constant use, perhaps a few minutes with her magical abilities. If she were to touch someone like Professor McGonagall's wand while she was using it she would get first degree burns. She might lose her hand if she did the same to Headmaster Dumbledore.

Apparently, the whole killing a vampire with a wood stake idea was born from this weird phenomenon. Any wood that was enchanted or otherwise had magic flowing through it was particularly harmful to a vampire. Touching it would cause harm in the form of burns. Having it puncture her skin or be ingested, on the other hand, would paralyze the areas around it and quickly start cooking away her flesh. Holly had felt like she'd dodged a bullet when she learned the handle of her dagger was made of some kind of animal horn, not wood like she'd originally thought.

Unfortunately for Holly, wands weren't the other things that witches and wizards commonly used that were made of wood. Broomsticks being one of the most common after wands. Lucky for her nobody really used a staff anymore in England, strongly warded wooden doors could cause her some level of harm. Things made of wood that were conjured into being didn't have as much of an effect on Holly, but they did more than normal, mundane wood did. From the one time Holly had sat in a conjured wooden chair she had learned that it was a sort of burning itchy sensation. She didn't know what would happen if she spent a really long time in contact with it though.

"Maybe you could ask an upper year for some advice?" Leanne suggested from across the room. Holly hadn't thought of that. She wasn't really used to asking for help, but the idea had merit. She had no idea how magic worked and had only even known of its existence for little over a month. It was only logical thought that the longer one studied magic the more they would know about it. Mind made up, Holly gave her thanks for the idea and started heading for the common room.

It stood to reason that the older one was the more they knew. Headmaster Dumbledore was the oldest person she knew of and was said to be the most powerful wizard alive, after all. So, pooling all her courage, Holly stepped over to a group of seventh-year girls that looked to be talking more than studying.

"Excuse me?" Holly said as politely as she could manage. "I was wondering if you could help me with something?" She had gathered the trio of girls' attention and was given an affirmation to her request, so she went on.

"See, because of, um... Health reasons, I can't use a normal wand made of wood. The Headmaster has allowed me something else instead. A dagger, actually. It works but seems to have a couple of problems that none of my roommates can help me get around. It's great for control, but, um... It lacks 'oomph' as Hannah put it."

Voicing her issue Holly suddenly had a thought. "Actually, now that I think about it, there's no core to my dagger-like there is a wand. Do you know of some sort of way to maybe substitute one? Like maybe a magic battery or something to give it more juice?"

Holly was very disappointed to see that the words 'battery' and 'juice' had only managed to confuse the girls. While they were trying to figure out the odd words that Holly had used she was suddenly tapped on the shoulder. Turning around she was met with the sight of another seventh-year girl. This one, however, had bright pink hair. Holly had seen her a couple of times but had never spoken to her before.

"If you need an external way of storing magical energy you should try asking Professor Babbling. She teaches runes. You could also wait until you're a third year and take her class, or try to read some books on the subject yourself."

"Oh! Thank you, I think I'll do that while everyone else is taking flying lessons. Thanks, Ms...?"

"Tonks, just Tonks. Don't bother with the Miss stuff, either. You might want to try avoiding muggle words like 'battery' as well. Most witches and wizards probably won't know what you're talking about."

"Thanks, Tonks, I'll be sure to keep that in mind. I'm Holly, by the way."

"Oh yeah, the boy-who-lived's sister or something, right? You know, your grandmother and my mom were both Black's. So we're actually like twice removed cousins or something."

"Oh wow, really? So Grandmother Dorea was you're..."

"My great aunt, I think. Anyway, good luck with your knife wand. Sounds like something only a woman of the Black family could use if you ask me. My mom was kicked out of the family for marrying a muggle-born and even she still carries a dagger on her all the time."

Holly gave Tonks a small smile and a nod before thanking her again and walking back to her room. She told Susan and Hannah that she'd be in the library if they needed her, collected her bag and headed out in that direction.

* * *

Hermione Granger sat alone in the library, surrounded by books. She had assumed that once she got to Hogwarts everything would be different. People wouldn't make fun of her for being smarter than them or because her teeth were big or her hair was so bushy. She managed to get into Gryffindor, the same house Albus Dumbledore was in, but so far she was starting to feel like it might have been a mistake to go against the Sorting Hat's suggestion of Ravenclaw. That boy, Ron, was particularly mean to her, but nobody was really all that nice in general. Maybe it wasn't too late to ask to be sorted into a different house. No, she would just have to bear with it for now. She managed to get into Gryffindor, so clearly she was still brave enough for it and would fit in once she figured out the trick to it.

It was while she was sitting there alone in the library that she noticed the girl that two of her roommates, Lavender and Parvati, wouldn't stop gossiping about. Watching the girl, Holly, search for books on some unknown subject Hermione found herself very curious about the girl. She had a few of her own theories, none of them nearly as farfetched as the rumors going around about them. She just needed to wait for the right moment to try to confirm some of them.

* * *

Holly Potter sat down at an empty table with a trio of books all about runes. The first one she opened seemed to be the most basic one they had on the subject, so that felt like a good place to start. It wasn't long after she started reading that someone sat down at the table with her. Holly just chose to ignore the newcomer rather than look up from a book that was already proving to be quite an interesting topic to her.

"Are you Holly Potter?" came the somewhat bossily toned question. Holly just nodded while trying to continue her reading. "Are you _really_ Harry Potter's sister? I don't know if anyone else has noticed it, but I did on the train. It seems awfully strange that you'd have a lightning bolt shaped scar in the same place that your brother does."

This brought Holly's attention front and center. She looked up from her book, giving the girl she now recognized as Hermione Granger a wary look. "If you don't think I'm his sister what do you think then?" Holly tried to sound curious rather than defensive, but she didn't think she fully succeeded in that task.

"I think _you_ are Harry Potter," Hermione said with a smug look. "Is it just some kind of disguise or are you transgender or something?"

Holly could only blink a few times at the girl sitting across from her. She glanced at the red and gold trim of her robes to make sure this girl wasn't actually a Ravenclaw. Weren't they supposed to be the smart ones? Then again, it seemed an extremely Gryffindor thing to do to just walk up to someone and say they're lying about their name. Holly wasn't too sure what the word transgender was, but it clearly had something to do with her gender in some way.

"What if I told you Harry Potter was really the disguise and this is who I actually am?" Holly didn't really want to tell this girl something she still hadn't managed to tell her two closest friends, but if she'd already figured it out she wasn't going to lie to her.

"Then I think keeping the last name Potter was very stupid," Hermione said in a very matter of fact way.

"Please don't call my dead parents stupid," Holly was starting to find this girl somewhat grating. "It wasn't their fault their plan was interrupted by Voldemort murdering them in front of me."

Hermione just sat there with her mouth hanging open. She tried a couple of times to say something, but eventually just opted to nod her head. She muttered a quiet apology and quickly vacated the room with further mutterings of needing to get to her next class early. Holly took the opportunity of being alone again to gather up her three books and checking them out. She was a bit too upset to read at that very moment, but maybe she would be good to do so after the walk back to the Hufflepuff common room.

* * *

It wasn't until first Saturday in October that Holly felt like she knew enough about runes to go to Professor Babbling and get some help with her 'oomph' problem. She'd read through the first three books she checked out in a surprisingly little amount of time. Since then she had read five more and felt like she was reasonably comfortable with at least two runic languages. She still had to check a little cheat sheet she made to remember what most of the runes looked like, but she was slowly but surly memorizing them.

Her roommates thought she was a bit odd for spending so much time on a subject she couldn't even take until her third year, but she found it deeply interesting. A method of using magic that didn't require a lot of power all at once sounded exceedingly useful to her given her dagger's limitations. The last book she had read on the subject actually brought up a very interesting related topic as well. Her vampire scroll from Madam Pomfrey had mentioned how some wizards used to use a staff, but it turned out there were all sorts of magical foci one could use. From bangles to rings, wands to staves, certain kinds of grimoires to daggers like her own. It's extremely rare to see someone in England use something other than a wand, though.

It was a Saturday, so Holly went straight from the library to Professor Babbling's office once breakfast was over. She needed to eat a whole lot less than when she was human as a vampire, and it drew less attention if she just didn't show up for every meal and say she ate in the kitchens than just not eating in front of everybody. Upon getting a "Come in" from the Professor inside Holly opened the door and stepped inside.

"Hello, dear, and who might you be? I don't believe I have you in any of my classes," Professor Babbling said sitting behind her desk. She was a rather young woman, in her mid to late twenties if Holly had to wager a guess. She had long, straight black hair down to the middle of her back with her bangs cut short. She had a very light tan and wore simple but elegant red and silver robes.

"Um... Sorry to bother you but I was wondering if you could help me with a runes project," Holly explained. She appeared to have garnered Professor Babbling's attention with that statement. "See, I've not got a standard wand for... Various reasons. I was wondering if it was possible to maybe make some sort of external power source that would give its normally very weak but accurate spellcasting a bit more... 'oomph.'"

The professor had a thoughtful expression before asking to see what Holly had if not a wand. She carefully drew her dagger from inside her left sleeve and placed it gently on the professor's desk. Professor Babbling didn't pick the dagger up, but she did leaning closer to examine it some before drawing her wand and seemingly doing a few diagnostic charms of some kind on it. She did this for quite some time, a sheet of parchment and a quill floating in the air nearby writing out the results of her spells as she cast.

"This is a very interesting dagger you have here," Professor Babbling commented. "Where did you get it?"

"It's the only thing I have left from my mother. She died when I was just a year old and I only got it a month before school when I went to visit my vault at Gringotts." Holly stood with her hands clasped together in front of her as she spoke to the Professor.

Babbling had a thoughtful look on her face before she sat back down and gestured that Holly could take her dagger back. "I'm not aware of any method to connect a wand, or a dagger in this case, up to a magic battery. However, I think the reason you are having such trouble with putting power behind your spells is because of what this is. What you have that isn't so much a wand as it is a rune carving tool. Being able to cast a spell through it at all is only a testament to just how powerful of a focus it truly is."

Holly looked at her dagger with more than a small amount of surprise. She had no idea that she had something that was regarded as powerful. She didn't really get why it would take on the shape of a knife if it was supposed to be used as a method of writing, even if it involved carving into things. It wasn't like she could hold it like a quill, she would cut straight through her hand if she held it that way. Just as she was contemplating more efficient shapes her dagger could have it started to bend and shift around.

The dagger's handle wrapped itself Holly's hand, some of it twisting around her wrist and the rest almost holding her hand, interlocking between her index and middle finger and her middle and ring finger. The blade slid down and coiled around her hand, only ever coming into contact with the parts of the handle that were holding onto her. The end of the blade extended down her index finger and the very tip lay just at her fingernail, extending out by maybe two centimeters. The two rubies that had been at the base of the blade how sat on the second knuckle of her index and middle finger and the onyx from the pommel was in the palm of her hand. It looked sort of like half of a strangely, skeletal metal glove.

Just before Holly could voice a comment on the altered shape of the dagger her hand and wrist felt like she'd just stuck her hand into a beehive. She let out a stifled scream and crumbled to the floor, holding her pain filled hand with her other. Thankfully the pain only lasted a couple of seconds. As intense as it was that was more than long enough for her to never want that to happen again. Looking at her hand now it was just the same, except what was once the handle of the blade now quickly faded into a white, almost bone color as it neared her flesh. A closer look at those parts had Holly nearing a panic attack. It wasn't just the color of bone, it _was_ bone. _Her_ bone. The damn thing had gone and fused into her friggin' skeleton. It was only at six different points, but that was six too many in her opinion.

"Well," Professor Babbling said, just beside Holly. "It certainly won't be sliding around on you while carving anything like that. Can you make it turn back into a knife?"

Holly didn't know what to say in response to that. So instead of giving an answer all she did was try to silently command her dagger to turn back into a dagger shape. After a couple of seconds of nothing happening it started to twist and bend once again. This time, however, it went in reverse to what happened the first time. Soon enough her dagger was a dagger again and she couldn't help but notice she now and six little black circles on her skin. Running a finger over them she found they were the same texture as the handle of her dagger. Well, hopefully, that wouldn't hurt again then if it left a bit behind.

"Fascinating," came the somewhat far away sounding voice of the Professor. Holly just looked at her like she was a little crazy. "Tell you what, kid, since this seems to be your primary foci for better or worse, I'll help you out. Any time at all that you need some help with runes or a place to work on them my door is open to you. If I have a class at the time you can use my office, otherwise, the classroom is all yours."

As Holly left the office she felt that, aside from the pain of having your bones meld with a dagger handle, that was a pretty successful meeting.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Harry Potter, its copyright, trademarks, characters, and everything else part of it fictionally and legally are all owned by J.K. Rowling. This fanfiction gives me no monetary gain of any kind and in no way reflects the views, thoughts, or anything else of Ms. Rowling. It's just something I'm doing for fun.

* * *

"So, what is it you're working on exactly?" Susan said leaning over Holly's shoulder. She was currently in the process of very carefully carving runes into a bead of obsidian. She'd owl-ordered about two dozen of the things so she could practice carving the particular runes she needed onto the difficult shape. After the first dozen were covered in practice runes, then shattered so they didn't do anything dangerous if accidentally powered Holly had used the other dozen to try her best and use the two that were nearest to perfect.

"Making a torc style bracelet made of gold with some obsidian beads on the ends. I'm carving runes into the whole thing to make it a sort of secondary focus for shield spells and stuff." Holly stopped her carving to turn her head to look at Susan. "I was going to make it silver instead of gold, but when I realized obsidian was good with properties of protection according to Professor Babbling's book she lent me I figured I'd go for our house colors."

Susan raised her eyebrows in mild surprise. "This is how you're going to get around your lack of power in your spells, huh? So will you have to make a, what did you call it? Secondary focus? Will you have to make one for every spell?"

"I might have to make a couple that deals with unique spells or something, but I don't think I'll be making a focus for individual spells unless I find I cast that same spell a whole ton. Secondary foci are more for certain types or categories of spells rather than specific ones. At least that's what I've read. I've been working on this one almost all month. This is my last bead and I've already gotten Professor Babbling's help with the actual bracelet part already so I think it should be done today. Might be a bit late to the Halloween feast, but I'd rather that than to mess something up by splitting up the task of assembling everything and attuning it to me."

"I'll be sure to save you some sweets then, have any favorites?" Susan offered with a smile.

"I've heard a couple upper years talk about blood pops being sold in Hogsmead. That sounds like it could be interesting." Susan gave Holly a bit of a weird look at that but just shrugged and said she'd probably not have to try too hard to save one of those if they were even there.

Holly had been seriously considering tell at least Susan and maybe Hannah that she was a vampire, so maybe these candies could be a segway into that conversation. That first week had been nerve-wracking, but ever since she'd gotten her locket from Flitwick things had gone a lot more smoothly. She'd recently learned that not only did it protect her from the sun for a while it also glamoured her mouth so her fangs looked like just regular teeth. She didn't really smile all that much, so it really wasn't that big a deal, if she were, to be honest.

Holly was very excited to finally finish her very first runes project. She'd spent almost all month on it and gotten quite a lot of help from Professors Babbling and Flitwick, so she was pretty sure it would work as intended. After she picked out the pair of beads with the best runes she'd managed she would slot them into the ends of the torc style bracelet where a setting had been made for them. Then all she would need to do is channel a bit of magic into it with the intent to project a barrier until the impression of the magic took hold. After that, all she would need to do is cast a shield spell, like protego or a variant of it and it should work much better than her dagger. It would also leave her right hand free to do other things while the left held the shield.

* * *

Holly made her way out of the Hufflepuff common room with a grin on her face. Her new, fully functional shield focus torc adorned her left wrist. Now even if she did have to return to the Dursleys she had a means of protecting herself that the trace wasn't on like a wand. She didn't think it was on her dagger, either, but it also probably wasn't strong enough to protect her from a whale like Vernon.

Pushing away the dark thoughts of her relatives Holly made a slight detour on her way to the Great Hall to the restroom. She still wasn't overly familiar with Hogwarts' layout, so the nearest girls bathroom she knew about was an annoying amount of distance out of her way, but it would only delay her by a couple of minutes. She wasn't going to actually be eating much beyond what was essentially a goblet of 'tomato juice' so it didn't bother her.

Stepping into the girl's bathroom though Holly stopped only a few feet through the door. Was that crying she could hear? Making her way over to the only occupied stall Holly as quietly as she could manage. Which was actually rather unnaturally quiet, and was of no small amusement to scare her roommates with. Now wasn't the time for that though, there was a crying girl that probably needed comforting. Holly had never really been comforted before outside of the one hug she'd gotten from Susan so she was probably going to try to wing it and fail, but better to try than just let whoever this was be miserable all alone.

"Hello?" Holly said softly with a small tap on the stall door with her knuckle. "You okay? Need anything?"

"Just go away and leave me alone," came the slightly hoarse voice of none other than Hermione Granger.

Holly stood there for a bit, unsure what to do. Should she demand to help Hermione or should she just leave? Maybe just stay and try to offer some kind words? Maybe if she could at least figure out why Hermione was crying she could get someone else's help?

While Holly was lost in thought she started to notice a very, _very_ foul smell. For a moment she thought it was Hermione, but it didn't seem like it was coming from that direction. With a confused expression, Holly turned to look behind her, only to go white as a sheet.

"H-Hermione," Holly's voice was laced with terror. "I think we should leave."

The stall door opened quickly, strong words on the tip of Hermione's tongue, but they died before they could even start to be voiced when she saw what could only have been a troll. Both girls let out an ear piercing scream and hit the deck as the troll roared and swung its massive club. The girls managed to get low enough to not be hit by the attack, but the top half of all the stalls were turned into kindling.

Holly dragged Hermione by the wrist out of the way of the troll's next attack, only for Hermione to push Holly and her apart to dodge the one after. Hermione tried to take cover under the sinks but had to keep moving from sink to sink as the troll turned them into powder. Holly, not seeming to be the troll's current target drew her dagger and tried to slice at the troll to get its attention.

As a vampire, Holly was stronger than she normally would have been, but she was still recovering from severe malnourishment so that wasn't exactly something to write home about. Any magic she knew as a first year wasn't strong enough to affect the troll in any greater way with how thick and magically resistant their skin was either.

Not seeing any other options and with Hermione officially having run out of sinks Holly bolted for the other girl. While her strength might not have been all that astounding Holly had always been quick, now she was just ridiculous. Not quite a blur, but one might have compared her to one. She positioned herself in front of Hermione and extended her left hand.

" _Protago!_ " shouted Holly, a wriggling disk of air appearing in front of her. The first troll swing to impact it made a series of cracks spiderweb across her shield and panic flooded her brain. "Hermione, please tell me you know something that could help us. I really don't want to die in a bathroom."

The second swing of the club protected the two girls but shattered it. She didn't have time to recharge the bracelet before the troll could swing again. Shutting her eyes tight Holly brought her hands up in a vain attempt to shield her face. Lucky for her desire to keep living Hermione managed to come through. A few moments after hearing a panicked ' _wingardium leviosa_ ' Holly cracked her eyes open to see the troll's club floating just above its head.

With a confused look at its empty hand, the troll didn't see the club coming as it fell straight down and smacked it on the head. With the thump of the club hitting the floor soon being followed by the larger one of the troll doing the same the danger appeared to be over.

Both letting out shaky breaths Holly and Hermione slowly turned to look at each other. They were both a mess with bits of wood and/or shattered porcelain in their hair and water from the broken pipes on their disheveled robes. Hermione gave Holly a rib-crushing hug that let loose the tearful sobs at both of them being okay. It was a few awkward seconds before Holly hesitantly reached up to pat Hermione on the back.

Both girls nearly jumped out of their skin when the door to the girl's room was pushed open again. Instead of a troll, however, this time it was a number of professors, McGonagall at the lead. It was a tense few moments before the girls managed to get their stories out. Hermione had been in the restroom because of nasty things Ron Weasley had said about her and Holly being in the wrong place at the wrong time by coincidence. They were given a few house points, as if they would make them feel better, and told to go to the hospital wing to be looked over by Madam Pomfrey.

It was during their trek to the hospital wing that Hermione stopped Holly to say something. "Look I'm... I'm sorry about what I said in the library earlier in the year. I didn't mean to insult your parents or anything. I'm just... Just a bossy know-it-all with no friends."

Holly, however, was only vaguely paying attention to Hermione belittling herself and her repeated apologies. Instead, she was transfixed by an ever so slowly lengthening trail of blood on Hermione's cheek. Holly wasn't sure if it was the exploding stalls or the sinks that might have caused it, but she didn't really care to think it over much either. She'd been told she'd need to drink blood, be it animal or otherwise, every three or four days given her age. It would go down as she got older, but as it stood she had been busy working on her shield bracelet so was on day four.

"Um... Holly?" Hermione finally noticed Holly didn't seem to really be listening to her, just kind of staring at her face. Just as she was about to give the girl's shoulder a small shake to make sure she was okay Holly slowly started to lean towards her. Thinking the smaller girl was having some kind of catatonic seizure or something Hermione reached out to catch Holly's shoulders. Expecting to have to support a weight similar to her own Hermione was surprised twice over by reality.

First off, Holly seemed to weigh far, far too little even for someone her height. Second, she wasn't falling forwards, she had leaned closer too... Too kiss Hermione's cheek. It wasn't exactly a chaste, friendly kiss on the cheek, either. It lingered and involved just the very tip of Holly's tongue. It was very strange and made Hermione blush bright red. Was this supposed to be some kind of wizard thing? She hadn't ever read anything about this sort of thing. Any thoughts that this was just an odd cultural quirk left her mind when Hermione saw that Holly's face was just as crimson as her own felt.

"Um... S-sorry about that," Holly stammered out. She tried to start a few more sentences, but gave it up and just ran away at a surprisingly fast speed. Hermione watched her leave as she lifted a hand to the spot Holly kissed. She stood there for a few moments before pulling her hand away and looking at it. There was blood on her fingers.

* * *

Hermione had made it a project of her's that whole next week to figure out Holly Potter as best as she could before approaching them. She didn't learn a ton, but what she did learn was quite interesting, especially after some reading on the subjects. They seemed to be rather friendly with a number of their housemates, hanging out a lot in particular with Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott. They spent a good amount of time in the library, but not nearly as much as any of the Ravenclaws or Hermione herself.

Holly seemed to eat very few meals in the Great Hall, only showing up for lunch every few days. Even then though Holly only ever seemed to have a drink or eat some soup. They spent most of the time they should have been at meals in the library reading about runes and enchanting. Hermione had originally thought, being a disguised Harry Potter, that Holly just had some level of wandless magic. An enchanted bracelet seemed a lot more likely though, especially given the interest Holly seemed to have in the subject.

All of that Hermione might be able to wave off, but the other odd things couldn't be as easily explained away. The food and drink she had was always red. She always sat furthest from any windows and always looked uncomfortable at the end of Herbology and left double Herbology early. On top of that, when in the sun, Hermione had noticed that the locket Holly wore gave off a very faint orange glow that got dimmer the longer she spent in it. Holly had never participated in flying and didn't use a wand and seemed to hesitate before touching any wood. She was pale and hadn't gained really any weight since starting Hogwarts. She also moved with an almost eerie amount of grace.

All that mixed with some more minor things on top of the kiss to her bloody cheek Holly had given her made Hermione very suspicious. After looking through several books on vampires and checking into the history of non-humans at Hogwarts Hermione was surprised to learn Holly wouldn't have been the first non-human to attend Hogwarts. She would be the first vampire to attend after being turned though. Hermione didn't feel like she should tell a teacher, they were probably already aware of the situation. It was very clear from some questions that Hermione overheard though that there were at least two other people that needed to know.

"Excuse me," Hermione approached Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott during one of the few times they were in the library and Holly wasn't. "You're friends with Holly Potter, correct?" Upon getting nods from both girls Hermione slid them a roll of parchment. "I think you should read this." Having delivered all her notes on Holly and vampires to the two girls Hermione gave them a concerned smile before walking away.

* * *

Holly was starting to get a little worried that something was wrong with her two friends. Susan and Hannah also seemed to always been talking about something important before Holly walked up but would immediately stop when she did. They were giving her odd looks as well when they didn't think Holly was paying attention to them. It had been three days of this and it was really starting to get to her.

What were they hiding? Did they learn one of her secrets? She was so sure nobody had figured out that she was actually some kind of freak like her relatives always told her. Maybe it was that she used to be a boy? Had the glamor on her fangs faded? Holly needed to figure this out, so she thought up a plan and got to it.

It was a pretty simple plan, actually. She didn't go to dinner that night, so she just hid under Susan's bed a bit before they were due to return. It was Sunday so they shouldn't have any homework needing done so they shouldn't go to the library. It wasn't long after Holly got in position that the two she was waiting for arrived. Megan was with them but luckily for Holly, she was only there to grab something and return to the common room.

"So what are we gonna do?" came Hannah's voice from above her on Susan's bed.

"I don't know," Susan replied. "Maybe we should let her tell us at her own pace?"

"But what if there's some kind of problem she has or we accidentally do something harmful?"

"Well, we'll just have to read up about them. If Granger can take casually give us that many notes on them there is probably more information. Maybe we could ask a professor for help? They're probably aware of the situation."

Hannah gave a sigh before Holly heard a soft thump. Probably her falling onto her back on Susan's bed. "Having a friend who's secretly a vampire isn't really something I expected to have to learn how to deal with in my first year."

Holly felt like she was going to puke out her heart. How did they figure out she was a vampire? Someone _gave them notes_ about her? But who in the world would have... Hermione. She shouldn't have just run away on Halloween. She should have told her, made her promise not to tell anyone. Without that she was under no obligation to keep it a secret. Dammit.

Drawing her dagger Holly whispered a simple levitation charm to make something over on the left side of the room fall over. With that as a distraction, she quickly got out from under the right side of the bed and stood up. With a cough, Holly gathered the attention of the two very surprised witches sitting on the same bed. "I was going to tell you guys something, but I guess you already discovered it."

Susan and Hannah could just stare for a few moments. It was Susan that found her voice first. "Oh, Holly we don't care that you're a vampire. The ministry might say you're a dark creature but my aunt doesn't have any more trouble from people like you than she does normal witches and wizr- Wait! I didn't mean to say it like that! You're normal, well, not _normal_ normal, but... Ugh!"

Giving up with whatever it was she was trying to say, Susan, instead just jumped to her feet and pulled Holly into a hug. Her third ever. She was starting to wonder if she'd only ever get hugs when she felt like hell or nearly died.

"Just... Don't take this the wrong way, but please don't bite me without permission or anything, 'kay? I don't think I'm quite okay with that yet, but... Maybe one day if it won't kill me." Holly wasn't sure if that was the most comforting thing Susan could say, but she tried to take it in the spirit it was meant.

"Promise," Holly mumbled into Susan's shoulder.

"So," Hannah said with a thoughtful expression. "Is being a vampire why you're so tiny? You were turned as, like, a nine-year-old?"

Holly gave Hannah a cold glare over Susan's shoulder at that. It did raise an interesting question though that she didn't think she had an answer too. Would she have to watch everyone in her year grow up around her, or would she get to grow up, too? She really hoped it was the latter.

"So what's this new project you're working on?" Susan tactfully changed the subject with a gesture to Holly's desk.

"Oh!" Holly's face lit up at a chance to talk about her quickly growing passion for runes and enchanting. "I found this really cool book on all sorts of common charms and a good many of them and some in our textbooks seem really nice to have handy. So I'm making a 'Charms Bracelet.'"

It took a moment, but with her emphasis on the word charms and the shit eating grin on Holly's face Susan and Hannah couldn't help but groan.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: Harry Potter, its copyright, trademarks, characters, and everything else part of it fictionally and legally are all owned by J.K. Rowling. This fanfiction gives me no monetary gain of any kind and in no way reflects the views, thoughts, or anything else of Ms. Rowling. It's just something I'm doing for fun.

* * *

The Christmas break at Hogwarts in Hufflepuff house was very lonely. Holly was one of three that had stayed behind instead of going on and she had only seen the other two a handful of times. On top of that, they were both four years older than her, so she didn't really know how to approach them. So Holly had mostly just stuck to her room or the library. She was told she had to show up for at least one meal a day so they knew she was okay, so she usually joined everyone that stayed behind in the Great Hall for dinner.

It was at Boxing Day's dinner that Holly was in a particularly happy mood, having a small smile on her face the entire time. It was this that caused Professor Babbling, who had never seen the girl smile that much, to ask how her Christmas was.

"Oh it's been my best ever," Holly answered happily. "I've never gotten a present before, and this year I got four!"

Almost everyone shared a look at that statement. Poppy, in particular, looked torn between tears for Holly and a murderous glare at Albus. "That's wonderful," Bathsheda Babbling commented. "What were you given, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Not at all," Holly gave professor Babbling an even bigger smile. She rather liked this particular professor, even though she didn't actually attend any of her classes. "Hannah got me some silver wire and Susan got me a little bag of all sorts of little gemstones. I don't think they really knew what to get me other than things I could use to practice enchanting things. Tonks got me a few chocolate frogs, and even though I can't eat them I guess I could start collecting the cards like Megan does. I also got a really nice cloak from someone who didn't sign their name on the card they left with it. They said it belonged to my dad and should be returned to me, so I'm not actually sure if it counts as a gift since it was technically already mine."

This last line actually managed to get Snape's attention in a way that wasn't just weirdly staring at Holly. Actually, he spoke probably one of the longest sentences he ever had directly to her instead of everyone around. "Who, exactly is your father then and why did neither of your guardians give you anything?"

"Um..." Holly actually had to think for a minute there. "I think Hagrid might have said my parents' names once back when he saved me from the Dursleys, but I can't remember what he said now. Jason? John? It started with a 'J' I know. The letter they both left for me at Gringotts only said 'mom and dad' but my mom also left another one that mentioned her name was Lily."

Snape stared stone-faced at Holly while she spoke. When she had been silent for much longer than was needed for any length of pause he prompted her again for why her guardians hadn't gotten her anything.

"Oh, they should never waste the time, effort, or money."

The rest of dinner was very tense, with many a glare being shot at the headmaster from the professors. The four Weasley brothers and the four or five other students there were slightly subdued but still cheerful.

* * *

Holly wondered if maybe Susan being the niece of the magical police was rubbing off on her a little. She was fairly sure if she'd gotten this cool magic cloak at the start of the year she would have been sneaking around the halls after curfew that very same night. What better use could there be than sneaking for a cloak that made you invisible, after all?

Well, Holly had thought of a few uses better than exploring, actually. The first was reading books from the restricted section, but she'd read enough books on runes to know you could make wards with them. She wasn't going to blindly walk into an area that was more likely than not warded in various ways. That in itself was bad, but there was also a lot of wood in the library for shelves, so if they were strong enough wards she might get hurt if she leaned up against something to read for too long.

The second use she thought of was playing investigator. She supposed it might actually be playing auror in the magical world, but whatever. So, cloak protecting her from being seen, Holly made her way not to random wanderings or the library, but to the third-floor corridor. She remembered something about the right-hand side, but there was more than one door, so she just kept testing them until she found one that was locked. Quickly lifting her arm and fiddling with her charms bracelet she found the charm that was shaped like a little key. The unlocking charm. She was pretty sure this wouldn't work since it was a first-year charm and they would probably use something stronger than just a normal, mundane lock too-

"Oh hey, it opened," Holly said with more than a little surprise and a touch of confusion. Pushing the door open Holly peered inside. She stood there a moment, then slowly pulled her head back and shut the door. "How did they even get a dog that big into a room with a door this small?"

Holly thought on that for probably more than was needed, but she was in a bit of shock and her mind wasn't quite working at full speed. Good thing she had this cloak otherwise she'd be dog food. Walking back to her common room Holly kept mulling over the problem of fitting something much too large in a small space, the dog, and the door. She wasn't sure why this was the thing bugging her, she should probably be wondering what that dog was doing there and what was in the trap door below it.

It was just outside the Hufflepuff common room that two epiphanies hit Holly at nearly the same time. "They made the dog smaller or the door bigger, then put it inside. That book said the shrinking charm was useful for packing a lot of things in a small space, and the enlarging charm to undo that. What if I just made something bigger though? Could I write more runes on it? Maybe I could even write runes on something really small, like an earring, that do more than just a really simple charm..."

Then as soon as that thought was out of Holly's mouth her eyes opened wide. She was surprised and somewhat appalled at the complete stupidity of the situation. That huge dog was protecting a trap door. A door that went _down_. It was on the _third floor._

Holly scrambled inside the common room. She had something to actually investigate here. Either the second floor was extremely oddly shaped, that trapdoor was false or led into a very small area, or there was something impossible going on with the layout of that area of the castle.

* * *

It was a very odd thing that Susan and Hannah returned to at Hogwarts. When they got inside their dorm room they came across Holly. That in itself was very odd, but what she was doing sure was. With parchment and quill in hands, Holly was counting out how long every few stones that made up the walls of their rooms were. Her measuring device seemed to be a chocolate frog card, of all things.

With Holly muttering under her breath and writing down the measurements she was getting Susan and Hannah shared a bit of a look. "Holly?" Hannah's voice made Holly jump a little.

"Oh, hi there," Holly said with a tired smile. "Welcome back. Do either of you two happen to know the dimensions of a chocolate frog card? It was the only thing with a standardized size I could find in my trunk."

"I think the short side is 9cm, but I forget the long one," Susan helpfully supplied. Holly looked down at her notes and started crossing out the measurements she took that used the long side of the card and started doing some math.

"So I assume your Christmas was a dull one if you are literally counting the stones on the wall?" Hannah asked with a chuckle.

"Oh it was fantastic, actually," Holly replied. "I'd never gotten any gifts before, so it was almost surreal. I went investigating a little with this enchanted cloak and discovered something quite odd. I've already counted all the stones for measurements I needed on floors two and three, but I didn't know how big they were so here I am, trying to figure out the average size of each stone that makes up the walls."

"What exactly have you learned with your investigations?" Susan asked with a smile. She was quite used to conversations along this sort of line.

"There is a trap door on the third floor that leads into a huge room full of some kind of plant," Holly informed her two friends. "I didn't go into it because there didn't seem to be a ladder to get out. However, I did manage to see the walls to count stones. Counting the ones on the floor and everything in the same area on the floor below it I recorded my numbers and... Just finished my math."

Holly smiled at her two friends and showed them her parchment. They couldn't make heads or tails of all the chicken scratch in the time Holly gave them though. "There is absolutely no way the room under the trap door on the third floor could fit where it is located. So either the trap door is a portal to somewhere else in the castle, or the room breaks the size changing limitations on the normal spells and enchantments used to make things bigger on the inside."

There was a bit of a pause where nobody said anything. Then finally Hannah broke the silence "And?"

"And what?" asked Holly.

"What exactly does this mean?"

"Oh, I have no idea. I was just bored and found something to do between enchanting things. This did give me some ideas though while figuring it all out. No, the only real thing I guess I learned through all this is that you probably shouldn't use a huge three-headed dog to protect something when said dog can be put to sleep with even the worst music I can produce."

That statement certainly got a bigger reaction and demands for explanation than all the hard work Holly had put in.

* * *

It wasn't until the end of May that anything broke up the pretty normal schedule of Holly Potter. Exams were coming up next week and Holly was pretty sure she would do at least decently on them. She was a little worried about the practicals for her courses that used wands but was actually on her way to the Deputy Headmistress' office to ask if her secondary foci were allowed for those.

In the time between finishing her charms bracelet over Christmas Holly had managed to finish two more projects. One was a pair of glasses that she had dubbed her 'Magesight Lenses.' Susan and Hannah thought it was a better name than her last creation. They made any runes viewed through the left lens glow a faint silvery-purple color. The right lens allowed her to view magic and how it flowed around and through things. Wearing these glasses she could much more easily reverse engineer magical objects she found, as well as troubleshoot anything she made in the future.

The second project she finished was a pair of rings. One of them went on her right thumb and the other around the base of the blade of her dagger. It allowed her to manipulate it remotely out to a range of about three meters and pull it back into her hand from twice that distance. She had a feeling her dagger could teleport or something, but that function didn't seem to work on demand, only in emergency situations.

While in transit from the Hufflepuff common room to McGonagall's office Holly rounded a corner only to bump into someone and fall flat on her butt. Looked up to see an almost offensive amount of purple this could only be one of two people. Since they didn't have a really long white beard it was obviously Professor Quirrell.

"Sorry about that, Professor," Holly apologized, getting to her feet.

"N-n-not a p-p-pr-problem, M-Ms. P-p-potter" stuttered out the overly annoying defense teacher.

Thinking on a little Holly had a bit of an idea. "Actually, I had a question, Professor, since you're here." Getting a nod and a gesture to go on Holly did so quickly, already getting a headache from this guy. She blamed the overpowering smell of garlic and something rotting. "I'm a bit worried about my practicals for a couple of my classes, yours among them. I was wondering if foci other than wands were allowed."

Holly waited for a few moments, hoping that the professor was just lost in thought and not staring at her forehead in a really creepy way. Wait. Shit, her forehead! Her bangs must have moved out of the way when she fell!

"Professor? Is something wrong?" Holly said taking a half step back. Before she could manage anything else though the professor drew his wand faster than she had ever seen the man move before. With a bright flash of red everything went dark.

* * *

Holly awoke to the sight of the boring stone ceiling that most of the school had above her and a very uncomfortable surface below her. She tried to sit up, only to find that she could barely move. Starting to panic just a little Holly lifted her head and saw that she was bound in ropes.

"Finally awake, I see," came a voice that was only vaguely familiar to Holly. Looking around she saw Quirrell of all people standing in front of what looked like a really big mirror. There was some kind of writing that she couldn't make out from her vantage point on the floor.

"W-what?" was all Holly could think to say. Her head was throbbing and she felt like she'd been dragged down a flight of stairs.

"Once before I've been down here," Quirrell just kept staring at the mirror. "I can see what I want, I can see myself giving my master the stone. How do I get it though? I admit I was at a loss, but my master is wise and figured out Dumbledore's plan."

Turning around to look at Holly directly Quirrell drew his wand and not-so-gently levitated Holly into an approximation of a standing position. Floating her over to be in front of the mirror he stepped back.

Holly had been thankful the first time she'd seen her reflection in a mirror, if that bit of folktale had been right about vampires she would have had a hell of a time fixing her hair in the mornings. This mirror was a bit odd, though. It not only showed Holly _not_ bound in ropes, but there were a few people standing beside her. Directly to her left was Susan, to her right Hannah. Slightly behind her and to the left was a woman probably around Professor Babbling's age with long hair the same wine red color as Holly's. To the right and slightly behind her looked like a much older version of what she used to look like as a boy.

It only took a few moments of confusion before Holly realized who these people were. Friends and family. Mirror Holly gave her a huge smile, one without any fangs, and locked arms with Susan and Hannah. Real Holly couldn't help but start tearing up at the sight. She didn't even notice when the ropes binding her were removed. She did notice though that while Mirror Holly had a number of odd pieces of jewelry and other baubles on her person, Holly only had the ring on her right thumb.

"Well?" came Quirrell's voice. "What do you see? Do you see the stone?"

Holly was halfway through the first word of saying that she didn't see anything she'd call that when Mirror Holly suddenly reached into her inner robe pocket and pulled out a blood red stone similar in size to a billiards ball. Placing it back inside her pocket with a wink Holly felt a weight appear in that same pocket of hers.

"Uh..." Holly had to think fast or she was pretty sure this situation could turn pretty bad. "Y-yeah, I do, actually. I see Dumbledore putting it inside his desk"

" _He lies,_ " came a voice that Holly was immediately ticked off at. Who was this voice to call her a boy of all things? She might not have been 100% done with that gradual change thing, but she would wager she was like 80% there.

"Tell the truth, Potter!" Quirrell bellowed. Shit, that was one of the Hufflepuff qualities that she was pretty sure didn't apply to kidnapping situations. She had to stall or something, surely someone was looking for her, right? Somebody had to care that she'd probably been missing for quite some time now, right? Holly felt a little sick as a little voice in the back of her head told her otherwise.

" _Let me speak to them,_ " came that creepy disembodied voice again.

"Master you are not strong enough,"

" _I am strong enough for this,"_ was all the convincing Quirrell seemed to need before he started removing his smelly turban.

The next few minutes were like a blur to Holly. Turns out, Quirrell was host to a creepy, disgusting face monster on the back of his head that thought it was a dead man. When Holly refused to give this monster even the time of day he got pretty pissed at her. Holly was then forced to duck and dodge and roll and run for her life as spell after spell was fired at her. Spotting her dagger on the ground she managed to position herself so Quirrell was between her and it.

With a swift tug of her hand in the air, her dagger shot from the floor towards her. Opening her hand again and twisting her wrist she managed to cause her dagger to flip up so the point was facing the ceiling and do a little turn in the air. It sliced Quirrell's wand cleaning in two before clattering on the floor. That's when things got _weird_.

Quirrell and the face parasite roared in anger and charged her, aiming to strangle her or something. When his skin touched her's though his scream turned a lot more painful instead of angry. With smoking hands and demands of what she'd done to him, Holly pounced on her assailant. Punching him in the face a couple of times with her other hand on his neck it wasn't long before Holly was a couple paces away dry heaving after having to watch a man crumble and burn away into ash in her very grasp.

She never saw the smoky black phantom that passed through her, causing her to fall unconscious once again.

* * *

The white ceiling Holly next awoke to was a welcome change from the last one. That meant she was in the competent hands of Madam Pomfrey. Still, a little bleary-eyed Holly sat up and took in her surroundings. There was a small collection of candy on a table at the foot of her bed and Hedwig was perched on her headboard. Not being interesting in the slightest by the candy that she couldn't eat, the two blood pops that she was pretty sure were from Susan and/or Hannah catching her eye for later though.

It was a one-sided conversation answered by the barks of a snowy owl that Madam Pomfrey came upon when she arrived to check up on her only bedridden patient at the time. The others just being a handful of 5th and 7th year Ravenclaws that needed calming draught because of exam stress. "Awake at last and appearing to be doing well, I see," were the words Poppy announced herself with.

"I feel like my head's going to split open and a swarm of woodpeckers are going to come out of it, but other than that I've been worse," Holly replied to the older witch.

That status report didn't exactly comfort Poppy. Her diagnostic spells could find nothing wrong with the girl, so Poppy informed her that she could leave after some pain potion. How Poppy wished she could do something more than she already had for the obvious signs of abuse and malnourishment for the girl, but with her status as a vampire and with Albus blocking any attempt she made to report it to the DMLE she really was limited in her options. She dearly hoped that Albus had listened and taken to heart her warnings and recommendation that Holly does not return to where she was before Hogwarts.

Holly was shocked to learn that she'd been in the hospital wing for two whole days. The Headmaster had come to see her just before she left and debriefed her on everything that went down where ever it was that Quirrell kidnapped her to. The Headmaster tried to tell Holly some tall tale about how the power of love and her mom was what protected her and harmed Quirrell down there, but Holly wasn't having any of that nonsense. She might have bought it, too, if he didn't let slip that it was her aunt's love that maintained the protections her mother died to give her. If that was the case it was little wonder she wasn't out cold for longer and missing a limb.

That wasn't nearly the worst thing that Holly had been told though. No, the thing the Headmaster told her that gave her nightmares was that she _had_ to go back to the Dursleys. He assured her he would do everything within his power that she would be treated better and that was the only thing that had finally made Holly cave in and say okay to the demand.

* * *

It was on Platform 9 ¾ after Holly had said goodbye to Susan and Hannah and gotten her fourth and fifth hugs that Holly knelt down to be at eye level with Hedwig in her cage. "Alright, girl, listen. I'm going to let you out before I even step back through the barrier to the muggle part of King's Cross. I want you to keep an eye on things at the Dursleys from a safe distance, okay? If you don't see me for more than a week or something really, really bad happens I want you to fly as fast as you can to Susan's house and give her or her aunt this letter."

Once Holly got a serious nod from Hedwig she pulled out a letter from her pocket. Inside was the letter she'd originally gotten from Hogwarts that had the Dursley's address and that she lived in the cupboard under the stairs. There was also a note explaining her situation and the Headmaster's demands that she return there. Finally, the note said that if they were reading it then Hedwig hadn't seen her for more than a week or she was in extreme danger from her relatives.

Now all she had to do was hope she was just being paranoid. She also had to hope that the headmaster hadn't put a curse on her or Hedwig that stopped her from sending mail so she couldn't beg to go over to a friend's house or something.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: Harry Potter, its copyright, trademarks, characters, and everything else part of it fictionally and legally are all owned by J.K. Rowling. This fanfiction gives me no monetary gain of any kind and in no way reflects the views, thoughts, or anything else of Ms. Rowling. It's just something I'm doing for fun.

A/N: The start of this chapter is a bit heavy. If you don't want the bloody details just skip to the paragraph that starts "That had been two days ago..."

* * *

Amelia Bones was not happy. No, it was probably safe to say that Amelia Bones was quite livid. It had all started with a letter appearing from what could only have been house-elf magic right in front of her over breakfast. The letter wasn't even very long, but it had spiraled into one of the biggest messes Amelia Bones had seen since the war with you-know-who. That it involved one of Susan's friends made it even worse than it already was.

Holly Potter. A girl that didn't even seem to exist until last August right when the boy-who-lived seemed to vanish. If not for the fact that Holly could access the female dorms at Hogwarts everyone would have easily been able to tell Holly was just Harry in disguise. That the opposite was actually true never even occurred to anyone as far as Amelia knew.

None of that was what had Amelia so angry though. No, what had her so absolutely incensed was what that letter she had gotten had led to and that she could do so very little about it. A letter that had 'in case of emergency' written on the envelope and that said it was supposed to have been delivered by owl from one of Amelia's niece's friends that was apparently related to the MIA boy-who-lived and all that could be spared was herself and one other.

* * *

Amelia Bones and Kingsley Shacklebolt turned up at Number 4 Privet Drive in Surrey unsure what to expect. It was around nine in the morning and everything seemed fairly peaceful. The door to the house was opened with a simple unlocking charm and the duo quietly made their way inside. It was only a dozen steps inside that they could hear sobbing coming from a little cupboard tucked away under the stairs. Amelia motioned for Kingsley to continue further into the house while Amelia knelt down at the cupboard.

Gently pulling the cupboard door open Amelia took note of the drying bloodstains that formed a path from the cupboard through the door Kingsley just went through. Peering inside though Amelia could see the small form of a little girl curled into a ball rocking herself back and forth. She was the one making the sobbing noises, and could very faintly be heard saying something to herself. At first, Amelia figured the girl had hidden away in this cupboard, but taking a look around at it she was forced to admit it was much more likely that this was the little girl's bedroom.

"Boss," came Kingsley's voice from the other room. "I think we're a little too late."

Kingsley's voice seemed to shock the crying girl back to herself and she looked up and met Amelia's eyes. With the deep red hair and the brightest green eyes Amelia had seen in over ten years she immediately felt like she severely failed one of her old friends. With a heavy voice, Amelia spoke to who could only be the child of Lily and James Potter.

"Just stay here, we're going to take a look around and then you'll be leaving with us. Are you hurt?" Getting the smallest visible shake of the head as an answer Amelia stood back up and followed after Kingsley.

The kitchen and living room looked to be the sight of a massacre. An extremely overweight man lay on the floor of the kitchen, over a dozen stab wounds littering his body. Most of them looked to be from a knife of some kind, but two pairs of them were much smaller and each pair of tiny puncture marks were the same distance as the other. One was in the man's neck, the other his thigh.

Near the man was a thing woman with a long neck. Amelia couldn't make out very many details about her face. She had clearly been beaten with a blunt object until dead, then her corpse continued to be beaten further. What made this somehow worse than the man thought was that the broken, mangled arm near, but not attached, to the woman was what most likely had done the damage to her.

Finally, in the living room, there were pieces of what used to be a person strewn about the entire room. From the state of the larger chunks of what appeared to have been a very overweight child, he was most likely torn apart, rather than cut. What added even more to the disturbing nature of the kills though, was the low amount of blood. It was there, oh Merlin was there blood around, but it was far, _far_ too little for even the two adults, let alone them plus a child.

* * *

That had been two days ago when Amelia was feeling far too much of a mixture of emotions to really pinpoint what was the most prominent one. Today though, yes, today was most certainly anger. Not at the child, no, not at Holly Potter. Amelia was angry at Albus Dumbledore. She wanted to arrest that deranged old goat and force feed him to the first dementor she could find.

Albus had ignored Madam Pomfrey's advice, his deputy headmistress' observations, the pleading of a child and the reports of his squib informant. Every single one of them had told him to remove the Potter child from their residency at Privet Drive. Not only that, Albus had never once checked up on the child or informed them of anything at all until their 11th birthday. Even then he had sent what was probably the absolute worst person to inform such a child.

The more Amelia looked the more she learned that only made her more and more angry. Something was either seriously wrong with Dumbledore's head or he was legitimately trying to indirectly murder Holly. Even his defense of blood wards was flimsy at best. There wasn't any such ward currently at Privet Drive and only fading signs that the weakest of wards had ever existed at all. If they were anti-fire wards Amelia was doubtful they'd be able to put out more than a match.

Amelia was finding this rabbit hole went far deeper than she was ready to properly explore without more time. Unfortunately, even if she had proof that Dumbledore had held the Dursleys are wand point and forced them to do what they'd done to the Potter child she still wouldn't be able to win in court against him. It wasn't just because of Albus Dumbledore's considerable political power, either. No, the biggest thing working against Amelia in this situation was that Holly Potter was a vampire. Which meant as far as the Ministry of Magic was concerned she was treated as a dark creature and had just a few rights as a werewolf, if not fewer.

The most Amelia could do aside from trying to care for the poor girl was get her parents' wills unsealed. They shouldn't even have been able to be sealed, but when her digging had revealed that nobody had ever made any record of the reading of the Potter's wills she checked with Gringotts about the matter. She was borderline plotting murder when she learned even the Potter's didn't want Holly to go where she ended up. Thankfully Amelia Bones was on the list of people mentioned as their choices of a guardian for her.

So it was that Amelia came to be the guardian of a second child that had lost all or nearly all of their entire family to a madman with delusions of grandeur. Sitting down at her desk at the DMLE Amelia glanced at her pensive and put her hand inside her pocket with the bottles of memories she hadn't witness yet from all that took place at the Dursleys to Holly Potter. Dare she continue to torture herself by viewing them? She had originally offered to take them to dull the mental and emotional pain they gave Holly. Watching them to know the full extent of things was making her wonder if she should store her own memories of just watching the damn things.

With a long sigh, Amelia decided against it. She had already seen enough of Holly be beaten to the point that even her vampire healing couldn't keep up, forced into the sun until it was just shy of killing her, forced to work until she collapsed, had her newly surfaced status as a girl against her in ways that had Amelia forcing her way out of the memories, and starved to the point of losing her mind and attacking butchering her relatives. Not that they deserved anything less for what they did, but at the cost of making Holly feel like a monster it was not worth it. She just hoped Susan was having any amount of success with Holly back home.

* * *

"What do you mean _Holly_ shouldn't go back to Hogwarts?" Susan had her hands on her hips, staring down a house elf she'd never seen before.

"There is a plot to make most terrible things happen at Hogwarts this year," the house elf replied. He was wearing one of the grossest pillowcases for a uniform that Susan had ever seen. Clearly whoever he worked for didn't very much care about him in the slightest.

"Why exactly then haven't you warned the staff of Hogwarts?"

"Dobby must make sure Harry Potter is safe, Harry Potter is too important." Susan was starting to get slightly ticked off at this house elf calling her friend the wrong name. Turning to look at Holly, who was bundled up in a blanket on the couch, Susan crossed her arms.

"I'm gonna go floo call my aunt," Susan sighed. "Anything you need while I'm up?"

With a shake of Holly's head, Susan gave a nod and walked off to the nearest fireplace connected to the floo. Holly watched her go before turned to Dobby once she was out of sight. The two just kind of stared at each other in silence for a while. Eventually, Holly readjusted her blankets a little to free her hand. Offering said hand to Dobby she greeted him.

"Holly Potter. You do know I'm homeless now, right?"

"Sorry, Dobby did not know you changed your name. We house elves go by the magic, not the appearance. Yes, Dobby does know your family has been killed." Holly winced, recalling her hand to wrap the blanket more tightly around herself and sink further into the couch.

The two remained in silence from then on, Dobby staring at Holly and Holly staring at nothing in particular with a distant look in her eyes. Soon enough Susan returned, her aunt Amelia not far behind her. Susan sat beside Holly while Amelia tried to get as much information out of Dobby as she could before he popped away. It didn't amount to much though, other than Amelia asking Holly if she wanted a project to work on to get her mind off things. She gladly took the opportunity for the distraction.

"Susan's told me you've been studying runes and enchanting ahead of the curve to some success," Amelia told her. "How about you try to come up with some means of communicating with at least me in case this danger at Hogwarts isn't just house elf madness or a plot to get you to be uneducated. If you can't figure it out I'll see giving you a notebook with a protean charm on it that can communicate with Susan and myself." The two girls nodded, Amelia, giving Holly a worried look before heading back to the floo to return to work.

"Don't worry, Auntie will figure out who Dobby is owned by and makes heads or tails of all this," Susan reassured Holly, who just nodded back.

Susan was worried about her friend. She wasn't given all the details of how her aunt Amelia had found her but had enough to never want to leave the girl alone for too long. She'd already taken to holding Holly's wand-knife for her when she wasn't in active need of it as well. It was only the first weekend of July, so there was plenty of summer left for her to collect the pieces of her friend before they needed to get back to school. Step one was to not let Holly wallow in her own negative emotions.

"Come on, let's go try to figure out that communication problem," Susan said as she pulled Holly to her feet and lead her out of the room.

* * *

"W-why can't I just have animal blood like usual?" Holly complained.

"Because you can't survive off just the equivalent of salads for your entire life. You're a vampire, Holly, and should already have grown taller than me. I don't know who was in charge of your diet at Hogwarts but you can't survive off just cow blood. We can't really just give you that here, either. There's no way we could eat that much meat between just me and my aunt."

"So what's it gonna be Holly?" Susan put her hands on her hips. "It's been nearly five days since you last had anything so you're overdue. Just because you were forced to get used to it with those demons you lived with doesn't mean you should go that long or longer. So it's either take it from me or I floo call another close friend that you're comfortable enough with who would be willing to do so."

Holly tried to think of anyone else she could ask Susan to call, but of her short list of friends she only had Susan herself; Hannah, who was visiting family; and Hermione, who Holly really didn't think she was close enough to ask that of. On top of that Hermione lived with her muggle parents and Hannah was a bit squeamish and probably wouldn't agree unless it was an emergency or something if that.

Moving her gaze up from the floor to look at Susan Holly couldn't help but take a few moments to examine her friend. She was wearing a simple black dress shirt and a knee length plaid skirt. She had very smooth, creamy skin that made her reddish brown hair stand out nicely and frame her hazel eyes. The smallest glance at her lips with her this close though brought warmth to Holly's cheeks and had her backing up into the wall behind her.

"Oh, good idea," Susan commented. "If you're the one against the wall then I can step away if you're getting too into it."

"Wow, Sue, that really, really doesn't make this sound any better," Holly whined.

"Oh shush," Susan said unbuttoning the top button of her shirt. "You're so repressed you won't even shower if someone else is in the bathroom at Hogwarts. Don't you go being the one to make this weird like that."

Holly could do little more than press herself more firmly against the wall as Susan got closer. Holly could finally count the number of hugs she'd gotten on two hands instead of one, but being so close to someone for longer was still uncomfortable. She tried to push any thoughts of that night in Nocturn Alley or Vernon out of her mind as they came, but they still caused her to tremble. Eventually, Susan had rolled her eyes and moved Holly's head so her mouth was nearer her neck.

With a tiny gasp, Holly didn't have to try very hard anymore to distract herself from her thoughts. Susan smelled rather nice and, gently wrapping her arms around her, felt very soft. Any thoughts of Holly eventually thinking of guys the way she sometimes thought of Susan were dashed from her mind. She'd spent almost all of yesterday in the shower in pain because of the last few changes needed to make her 100% girl in everyone's books and she still felt this way.

Susan meanwhile, felt a heck of a lot more nervous than she was letting on. With Holly's mouth against her neck, she felt her face warm enough that she thought it looked like Holly's at that moment. She should ask her aunt a few things about all that. She braced herself for some amount of pain, and that did indeed happen, but nowhere near as much as she thought there would be. What she hadn't braced herself for was how nice it felt after that.

There was a subtle chill that spread a short distance from where Holly was biting her, and a sense of being lightheaded that slowly crept up on her. However, aside from that it felt almost, no there was no almost about it, this felt awkwardly, uncomfortably good. She really needed to talk to her aunt sooner rather than later about a few things.

It was Susan's legs getting shaky that finally tipped her off that she needed to step away. Doing so was harder than she thought it would be, but not because of anything physically impeding her. Taking a step back and steadying herself with her hands on Holly's shoulders her blush would have redoubled if she had enough blood to do so at the look on Holly's face. She could already feel the weird dreams she would have that night.

"Better?" Susan asked with a small smile.

"Much," Holly gave her a goofy grin.

* * *

So it was for most of July that Holly would work on some way to communicate over long distances. She gradually got out of being Susan's around the house, but whenever they left for whatever reason she would hardly move from the position. She was also very thankful that Amelia Bones had collected her memories of her time that summer at the Dursleys. She could still feel the mental damage they had done to her, but she could only ever recall anything in detail in short snippets. Sometimes something someone did or said would set off a series of those and she'd need a calming draught, but otherwise, she felt like she was doing pretty well.

Susan, on the other hand, had gotten quite good at brewing her own blood replenishing potions. She had slowly been getting Holly out of the habit of drinking animal blood ever since she saw how disappointed the girl looked with her meals after Susan had given her blood to her. She was okay with the few negatives that went along with doing so since the potions made it not last very long and the positives far outweighed them. Holly was looking healthier every day because of it, both mentally and physically, and Susan... Well, Susan didn't really get that big of a benefit from it. She still thought it was worth it though. Something about that was nagging at her though.

It wasn't until the Sunday before when Susan was asked who she wanted to invite over for her birthday that she learned Holly's birthday was only two days after Susan's. So at Susan's request and Holly's ignored denials, Amelia decided to have a joint party for both of them on the day between. Holly only had one other person to invite that wasn't already invited in the form of Hermione, who asked if her parents could come so they could see what a wizarding house looked like.

So it was, on the 30th of July that Holly wore her first dress. It was a simple knee-length thing, black with purple accents in the form of a bow on each sleeve and ribbon lacing up the back. She also wore her dagger in its sheath on her thigh, just in view, as well as her gold and obsidian torc bracelet. She wore her charms bracelet as an anklet just visible at the top of her small heeled boots as well. She left her magesight lenses in the room she was using but wore the ring on her thumb that let her remote manipulate her dagger. Susan called her paranoid, but Holly thought it was just practical that all her jewelry had an actual use.

It was a fairly small party, according to Susan, but Holly had never seen so many people in one house before, even if Bones manor was fairly large. Aside from Hannah and Hermione Susan had also invited quite a few of their housemates from Hogwarts. Holly didn't really ever leave Susan's side the entire party, which seemed to work out fine, since most people wanted to talk to both of them at some point anyway, being the reason for the party.

Holly did break away from Susan at one point to talk a little with Hermione. She wasn't as close with the bushy-haired girl as she was Susan and Hannah, but she still felt like she was a friend. She'd already forgiven her for telling Susan and Hannah about her being a vampire, so there wasn't really a reason not to be friends.

"So why are the two of you sharing a birthday party?" Hermione inquired at one point.

"I'm actually living here for the time being," Holly explained.

"Oh? Why is that? Something happen with the people you were living with before?"

"Yeah, they starved and beat me 'til I snapped and kill them all," Holly said in a tone of voice normally used for talking about the weather.

Hermione just stared wide-eyed at the vampire standing next to her. Her eyes flashed briefly toward the dagger on Holly's leg. "A-are you okay?"

"After the head of the DMLE, the department of magical law enforcement, took away most of the memories of it all, yeah. I still get flashbacks but only a couple times a day or so."

"Holly, having PTSD flashbacks once or twice a day isn't doing okay," Hermione started looking around for her parents. "Have you been to seen a psychologist at least?"

"What's PTSD? I think I might have heard of a psychologist before, they're like a head doctor, right?" Holly tilted her head a little in confusion. She didn't really want to explain to Hermione that the only reason she was even doing that well was because she was taking dreamless sleep every night she actually slept and what time wasn't spent on being productive was spent with Susan.

Before Hermione could explain any further they were interrupted by someone letting Holly know that gifts were being opened and she was needed in the other room. This actually kind of surprised Holly. She'd never gotten a birthday gift before. Maybe she'd get as many as at Christmas. That seemed like a lot of gifts for one year though if she got them at Christmas and her birthday.

Joining Susan on the couch in the next room Holly watched happily as Susan opened a number of gifts from her friends and Aunt. It took a little bit of prompting to get Holly to do the same, but she too opened far, far too many gifts in her opinion.

Susan received a number of things, though Holly mostly didn't know what they were or were simple things not worth mention or school supplies. From Hannah got a very nice looking notebook that matched the one that Holly got as well that she was informed was a diary. Holly figured she'd probably use it a more convent place to put down notes on her inventions and the like. There were other books as well, mostly with spells or other knowledge in them.

Holly got a good bit of candy that she planned on just giving to Susan later. She was very thankful for the thought though, especially since it was all from housemates she wasn't really that close too. Amelia got her a pair of quills she said would write down anything they heard. She was told there were two so she would still have one if she got curious and dismantled the other to see how it worked.

Her favorite gift, by and large, was from Susan, though. She was told it was just a toy that looked interesting, but to Holly, it was a whole lot more. It was a little palm-sized clockwork spider, enchanted to move around and follow very simple orders. Holly basically forgot there was a party happening around her while she played around with it. Eventually, she disappeared from the party entirely, taking the magic clockwork spider to her room to give it a proper examination.

* * *

"Why exactly didn't the sorting hat put you in Ravenclaw?" came the voice of Susan Bones from the bedroom door. Holly looked up at her, thinking back to almost a year ago.

"Something about not having the love of learning needed for it. I didn't know runes or enchanting exist at that time, so maybe I might have gone there if I did. After all, I never really cared a ton for school before. That was probably due in part or in whole to... You know."

"Sorry," Susan said in response to bringing up bad memories. "So I see you've already broken my gift."

"I haven't broken it," Holly immediately defended. "It actually comes apart quite easily. I figured I'd do so and see how all it works and how it's enchanted and the like. It's quite fascinating, I must say. I'm slowly figuring out what each part and section of the runes do and the charms on it. I don't really know much about charms, so any modifications I make to it will have to be done with runes though."

"Well, if you ever need a sounding board that isn't Hedwig just let me know," she chuckled. The snowy owl had hardly left Holly's shoulder ever since she'd learned that a featherlight charm on the bird would make it so her talons wouldn't cut into her flesh. Sometimes Susan swore Holly could actually understand the bird. That was just silly though, right?

Holly gave her a small smile and a nod before turning back to what she was doing. Susan stepped a bit closer to watch over the shoulder that wasn't occupied by an owl. It wasn't even halfway through August but Holly had already gotten noticeably better with her tinkering. Her answer to Aunt Amelia's communication problem was a stud earring made of apatite, a rather pretty blue stone. While worn the wearer could simply speak the name of anyone else wearing one and it would send their voice to their earring and vice versa. At first, you could only have communications open with one person, but it only took a couple more days for Holly to figure out how to talk to multiple people at once.

Aunt Amelia had been very impressed with Holly's work. She was curious how Holly had written her runes so tiny and Holly just told her she'd enlarged the earring before working on it. Susan thought it was very clever but her Aunt was convinced that was supposed to be impossible. After some testing on Holly's part, she learned she could only do it if she carved the runes with her dagger. Anybody else that tried to use the dagger for that purpose, however, found similar results in it being impossible. Actually, nobody but Holly could even get the dagger to cut anything, either. It was very strange.

Susan was starting to think Holly's knife as capable of some pretty amazing things, but could only do so much all at once. She did think it a little creepy that it had bonded of sorts to Holly's hand and wrist. It did seem kind of neat while it was there though since the blade bent to follow her index finger to do exactly as it was needed to. Susan thought it was even more creepy that it seemed almost, if not more, sentient than wands did at times.

"So how was hanging out with Hannah?" Holly asked, pulling Susan out of her thoughts.

"Good," she answered. "I would have invited you, but since the plan was going to a beach I figured you'd have taken a pass."

"Yeah, I probably would have. Know when we're going to go shopping for our school things?"

"I think we're going tomorrow with Hannah and her mom. Have you seen our book list?"

"Yeah, our defense teacher this year must be as big a fanatic of that Lockhart guy as you are."

"I am not a fanatic," Susan said with faux indignation. "Not anymore, anyway."

"Oh? What's changed to cause that?"

Susan couldn't help but blush a little and look away from Holly to stare at the wall. "Oh... Nothing, really. Just grown out of it, I guess."

"Didn't know people usually grew out of liking attractive men. Thought it went the other way, actually." Holly teased with a chuckle.

"Well..." Susan really didn't know how to reply to that. Not without saying something she wasn't prepared to even tell her Aunt yet, anyway.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: Harry Potter, its copyright, trademarks, characters, and everything else part of it fictionally and legally are all owned by J.K. Rowling. This fanfiction gives me no monetary gain of any kind and in no way reflects the views, thoughts, or anything else of Ms. Rowling. It's just something I'm doing for fun.

* * *

It was a rather dour, cloudy day that the trio of Hufflepuffs found themselves at Diagon Alley. There was a slight hiccup with the floo that had Holly having to quickly remove herself from Nocturn Alley, but with the odd things she managed to see inside a shop, she thought the mild panic attack was worth it.

"But _why_ did they pick a gross hand for their enchanted object that makes a light source private?" Holly was heard saying as they entered Flourish and Blotts.

"I don't know, but that is a dark artifact, so you will be informing Auntie when we get back home about it. _Not_ going back to examine it more closely. Got it?" Susan chastised her. She was more than little worried when the floo seemed to downright malfunction when Holly stepped into it. The girl's luck was just awful.

"What are you guys talking about?" Came a sudden, familiar voice from ahead of them. Waiting in a queue oddly in the middle of the shop was none other than Hermione Granger. Standing near her were two adults similar enough in appearance that they had a very good chance of being Hermione's parents.

"Holly is universally hated by magical travel and got spat out of the wrong floo," Susan explained. "She ended up in the wrong place and saw some illegal items." Hermione blinked in surprise a few times before giving a small smile and gesturing to the two adults that she, indeed, introduced as her parents. As it turns out the previous day's brief conversation about Gilderoy Lockhart must have been some kind of prophecy because he was the reason for the queue in the shop. A book signing of all things.

While standing in wait for the crowd to readjust itself enough to squeeze into the shop to get their school books Holly made a startling realization. She was no longer absolutely puny compared to her three friends. In fact, instead of being the smallest by several inches she was now on par with Susan. Sure, Susan might have been the shortest after Holly, but that still brought a smile to her face.

With an unconscious readjustment of her bangs, Holly suddenly found herself the center of attention after the dandy signing autographs called out "It can't be, Harry Potter!" This brought her out of her happy mood faster than a bucket of ice water to the face. Being pulled and pushed around the crowd then held firmly the side of a much older man ruined her mood for the rest of the day and maybe the next.

The blonde ponce was saying something to her, but all Holly could do was shout that she wasn't Harry bloody Potter, she wasn't even a boy. When all the man did was give her a slightly confused look she tried to wriggle free of his grasp. When that failed and he held her firm she screamed bloody murder that he was a pervert and to unhand her. It wasn't until she kneed him close enough to his family jewels to cause him to flinch and release her that she got away.

Breathing heavily with wild panic in her eyes she quickly bolted from the bookshop, no longer caring if she had all the books she needed. She could faintly hear the sounds of what sounded like a fight or something break out behind her, but all she focused on was slowing down her breathing and heart rate. She wasn't quite calmed down by the time Susan, Hannah, and Hermione made their way outside alongside Holly.

"What in Merlin's name was that?" Hannah asked a bit annoyed that Holly just attacked Gilderoy freakin' Lockhart.

"I don't like crowds, I really don't like strangers touching me, and I really, _really_ don't like being moved around and held still like that by people bigger than me. The only thing that would have made that worse is if my back was to him and I was against a wall." The unsaid 'like last time' was only picked up by Susan, who wisely gave Holly a gentle pat on the shoulder and nothing more.

"I got your books for you," Susan offered. "You also missed a huge fight breaking out between the Weasley family and the Malfoy family. Knocked over all of Hannah's things, but Malfoy was at least enough of a gentleman around so many people to pick them up for her."

Holly tuned out Hannah's grumbling as they finished up the rest of their shopping. Holly spent the entire rest of the trip to Diagon Alley as close to glued to Susan's side as she could get without actually being in physical contact with her. Hermione gave her a bit of an odd look during that time but had already gotten most of her things, so didn't stick with them for overly long.

Eventually, Holly asked if they could make the last stop out of Gringotts. Stepping inside the large white marble building Holly sought out a meeting with Griphook, who had seen her last time she was here. She tried to get any information out of him that she could about her dagger, but unfortunately for her, it wasn't goblin made, so they couldn't tell her a whole lot.

After paying a fee she did manage to get them to take a look at it though. After describing her time with the odd dagger they informed her that there was little wonder she had gotten such poor results with using a knife like a wand. She was mildly offended at that until they explained that, aside from being a wonderful rune carver the dagger was capable of 'holding' a spell that Holly was in the midst of casting. While it was doing so anything Holly touched with the blade of the dagger would have the spell cast on it. She was told it still probably wouldn't be up to par with a spell cast by a wand, but it would be far superior to casting at range.

She really wished her mom had included some kind of instruction manual with her final gift to her.

* * *

It was while standing at Kings Cross station next to Susan and Hannah that Holly was really starting to wonder what god she pissed off. They were running a bit behind schedule but still plenty early enough to get to the Hogwarts Express. Holly had seen a group of wizards a year or two older than her enter the barrier just before her, only for her trolly to crash against it like it was little more than a wall. Susan and Hannah crashing into the back of her and sending all of their things flying everywhere didn't help the matter, either.

That was a good ten minutes ago and it was getting quite close to the time the train was supposed to depart, but nobody could seem to figure out how to unseal the barrier. In fact, it shouldn't have even been able to have been sealed at all. Madam Bones was understandably pissed and eventually just organized a delay for the train's departure and a group of Aurors to side-along apparate everyone that got stuck outside of the barrier to the other side of it. Thank Merlin for muggle repelling and notice-me-not charms.

Once squared away into a compartment on the train with her three friends Holly had to ask the question. "You think the horrible danger Dobby was warning me about is all these malfunctioning things going on around me? First, the floo, now the barrier, if I wasn't absolutely sure offering a suggestion to the universe would have it come true I'd make a joke right about now."

"Who is Dobby?" Hermione inquired. This set off the story of Holly's summer and conversation progressed normally after that.

* * *

The first week of school progressed in a somewhat odd way. It was mostly normal, but also just weird enough to make her slightly nervous for the rest of the year. The first of many odd things was the reappearance of that weird rude kid from last year, Draco Malfoy.

She didn't know what gave him such an ego boost, but he seemed to be making a particular habit out of berating and belittling any 'Puffs that he came across. He especially seemed to enjoy calling her 'Potter' with enough venom to wonder if he might accidentally kill the person that has the misfortune of taking his first kiss. Last year he kept his insults mostly to the Gryffindors, but he wasn't putting such restrictions on himself this year it seemed.

The next oddity was their new professor. Holly was seriously contemplating looking up a ritual to see if she was cursed with misfortune when who else but the fop himself, Gilderoy Lockhart was announced as this year's DADA professor. At least Hannah and a number of other girls seemed excited about that. Holly meanwhile was already making plans to always have the seat nearest the door in his classes.

If having the biggest tower of ego and hairspray this century as a teacher wasn't bad enough he seemed to constantly pop up where Holly was. If it wasn't anywhere near every camera that Holly found herself within 30 yards of it was bugging all her other teachers before her classes with them. There were at least two cases of him trying to directly have a conversation with her but since this was between classes she was surrounded by at least four other Hufflepuffs so she could easily hide behind them and get away.

She had no such luck at hiding once finally in his class, however. It was going bad enough with his disgusting ego boost of a pop quiz, the pixies that he released on the entire class was thankfully cleaned up by Hermione. She almost asked where Hermione learned the spell to freeze all the pixies at once but thought that was a dumb question as soon as she opened her mouth. Of course, it was from a book in the library, where else?

Things only got worse though as the class ended. Lockhart had poked his head out of his office just in time to request that Holly stays after class. Normally Holly wouldn't hesitate to follow a direct order given by a teacher that didn't put her in any sort of danger. However, Holly was seriously wondering if this order would actually put her in danger. Lockhart had been giving her some very weird looks that she couldn't properly identify through most of the class and she was seriously creeped out by the guy.

So she did the most obvious thing and whispered that she'd already left the class by the time he said that to her classmates and bolted from the room like it was on fire.

* * *

It was that first Friday that Holly and Susan had a small problem with how Holly had been getting fed during her stay at Bones manor. Holly could probably only make it another half a day at best, and that was a slim chance when they noticed their problem. With how cozy the Hufflepuff common room was and how many people shared the same room they couldn't just close one of their bed's curtains and expect that to go unnoticed. They needed some kind of plan.

So, Holly made her way to the bathroom, making sure she was alone before activating her comms earring. Calling Susan on it she quietly requested that Susan either make her way to the bathroom where she was or find a private place to have a conversation through the earrings. A minute and a half later Susan turned up in the bathroom.

"So, how are we going to do this?" Holly awkward asked.

"Actually I was thinking we could just wait until everybody else fell asleep," Susan replied.

"I suppose that would work for today, yeah. I think we should iron out some kind of schedule though. One that doesn't risk one or both of us falling asleep early or in the other's bed and messing everything up."

Susan couldn't help but blush at that last comment. She agreed though, that either thing would be bad. So they spent the next couple of minutes working out when Holly would have her meals. They worked out that the best times would be Tuesday after lunch, since they had a free period then, and Saturday after dinner. They thought to maybe get Hannah to run interference for them if needed, but decided against telling her for the time being.

Since Holly probably couldn't hold out until the following evening though she gratefully took her supper from Susan with the two of them hiding in the shower. That night Holly fell asleep idly wondering if it was bad for either her or Susan for her to only get blood from one person. Eventually, she dismissed the thought as little more than paranoia, so long as they're careful and have blood replenishing potions.

* * *

"Ah-ha!" Holly suddenly exclaimed, drawing the attention of her roommates. "I've done it! I'm made – well, modified, technically – my very first construct. My own personal little runes assistant. He only knows one language, Elder Futhark, but give me some time and I bet I could have a construct for each language. Might need two for some of the more complex languages. Possibly three for something crazy like Egyptian." Holly held out her hand for her roommates to see her creation. It was the clockwork spider that Susan had gotten Holly for her birthday. She'd modified the front two legs, one to hold a piece of chalk and the other was a small rune carver spelled impervious so it wouldn't wear out anywhere near as fast as it would otherwise. She placed the little guy on the floor and carefully instructed him to make a runic circle on the floor. After a bit of trial and error in getting her assistant to draw the exact runes, she wanted she had indirectly made a runic circle on the floor in chalk that made a fist-sized ball of light to float about three feet off the floor.

Her roommates were decently impressed with her work. Hannah looked a bit tired, but still congratulated her on a job well done. Showing her head of house, Professor Sprout, even got her a few house points.

* * *

Holly was actually having a pretty decent second year, aside from the creep of a DADA professor she had. Her classes, Lockhart's notwithstanding, we're going decently well. She hadn't really gotten a chance to stop by Professor Babbling's office to get her help with a few things, but with so many people inside the school, she was finding herself reluctant to leave Susan's side. She was slowly coming back out of her shell though. She and Susan had yet to have been caught alone during Holly's meals, either.

Aside from the Rune Spider, a name she thought was quite nice, Holly had managed to invent one other magical device as well. She'd made plans to modify her Rune Spider so it could maybe weave runes in some way or another like a spider weaves a web, but wasn't sure how to accomplish that yet. Her new invention was something she dubbed the 'Hungry Fork.' With the press of a small rune on the back of the fork, it casts a very simple evanesco, or vanishing charm, on any foodstuffs touching the... Pointy part of the fork.

Holly also managed to make a couple more charms that cast... Charms for her bracelet. She now had a tiny key to unlock things, a small hand to levitate things, a feather to make things lighter, a light-bulb to create light, a band-aid to heal small cuts and bite marks, a pair of scissors for the cutting charm, a blue circle for the enlargement charm, a silver circle with a tiny blue circle inside it for the shrinking charm, a compass for the Point Me spell, and was planning on making a little sewing needle with a bit of thread for reparo. A solid start, in her opinion. She might have to one day upgrade from a charm bracelet to a necklace though.

So it was though, that any good fortune of Holly's was forcibly ruined by Halloween day. Since it was a Saturday Susan and Holly left early so Holly could get some dinner before she slept off her somewhat depressed mood for this, the anniversary of her parent's deaths. Suddenly hearing voices that were going on about ripping, tearing and killing while Holly presently had her fangs in a girl's neck did little to improve her mood, as well.

Nearly crushing the life out of Susan with the force of the hug she gave her out of surprise was just icing on the bad day cake. Little did Holly know she hadn't even seen the actual cake yet. After apologizing repeatedly for her behavior Susan and Holly exited the alcove they had secreted themselves away into. They didn't know what was worse, though. Stepping out of the alcove only to be seen doing so by a few people, or the situation they stepped out to see.

"Enemies of the heir, beware?" came the drawling tones of Draco Malfoy. "You'll be next, mudbloods." Holly wasn't exactly sure what that particular slur meant, but she felt very safe in her assumption. Having heard Malfoy call her both Potter and Weasley with enough distaste to make normal food sound good to Holly the way in which he called not just Hermione, but several other students that name made her wonder if he was legitimately contemplating murder.

It wasn't Draco that was so bad though, it was the seemingly murdered cat hung on the wall with the words written in blood beside it. This had the odd effect of both being somewhat creepy, as well as offending Holly with what a waste of food it was. Which just further creeped her out.

However, to keep this cake analogy up, if the icing was hearing voices, the cake was a dead cat and bloody message then the cake filling was the wide-eyed stare Hannah was giving her and Susan ever since they stepped out of an alcove together.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: Harry Potter, its copyright, trademarks, characters, and everything else part of it fictionally and legally are all owned by J.K. Rowling. This fanfiction gives me no monetary gain of any kind and in no way reflects the views, thoughts, or anything else of Ms. Rowling. It's just something I'm doing for fun.

* * *

"What's up with you and Holly?" Hannah sat in the library with Susan, Holly, and Hermione in the stacks trying to find information.

"What do you mean?" Susan looked up from her book, no luck so far with finding any information about the Chamber of Secrets in it.

"She's been acting a little... Clingy towards you," Hannah explained. "You two also disappear for a little while at the same time every Tuesday and Saturday like clockwork. Is there something I should know?"

Susan shut her eyes and held her cursing. She didn't realize Hannah had noticed any of that. Why did she have to have smart friends? Oh, right, because stupid ones would have annoyed her to death by now. "No, nothing you should know or anything. The disappearing is just for... Meals. I don't know about the clingy behavior. It doesn't really bother me, to be honest. I think she just still hasn't quite gotten over what happened to her this summer."

"What _did_ happen to her this summer? Holly told Hermione and me that she was starved and beaten until she killed her family. I just thought that was a joke though."

"Erm... I don't know many more details than that, but it isn't inaccurate from what I do know."

Hannah let that sink in a little before saying anything else. One of her friends had actually killed someone. Killed _multiple_ someones. Her _family_ no less. Surely things couldn't have been that bad her entire life? The only thing that had changed that she knew of was... "So they started treating her like that just because of the... Illness she picked up?"

"Actually, apparently she was disguised as a boy up until shortly before she started school last year and they never found out until she went back this summer."

That shut Hannah up for the rest of the day. Her second best friend had previously been a boy? No, Susan said she was _disguised_ as a boy. So everyone thought she was a boy up until she started Hogwarts. So does that mean she was actually Harry Potter? The boy-who-lived was really a girl and had tricked everyone? That seemed a bit much, but she had seen the scar under Holly's bangs enough times to know it existed, if not the exact shape it had. It was pretty likely that it was the same lightning bolt scar of the boy-who-lived. She really needed to think about what all that meant exactly.

It wasn't long after Susan and Hannah had been silent that Hermione and Holly returned to the table with more books to look through. With the only real history book worth its salt with all its copies checked out though the four of them never managed to find anything useful about the Chamber of Secrets. They did eventually find a source of information about it though.

During their next History of Magic class, Hermione kept bugging their ghostly professor for information on the Chamber. With the entire class wanting to know more about it as well the professor finally caved and told them about it. He told of the four founders, and how they sought out youngsters to teach magic. Apparently, there was something of a disagreement between the four over who should be taught though.

Holly really wasn't that surprised to hear the founder of the house that was full of racists was a racist himself, truth be told. She thought it was a little weird that values about that hadn't changed in over a thousand years or whatever. She wondered idly if they would be okay with a vampire as long as it was a pureblood before it was turned. Perhaps being turned into a dark creature made it a moot point though, since they were a half-breed at that point. Though Holly didn't think she was half anything, being all vampire.

It seemed a little far-fetched that Slytherin was able to build a secret chamber of any impressive size inside Hogwarts. Holly kept being reminded of that trapdoor from last year that shouldn't have been able to go down without seriously messing with the second floor though. If they were working with the kinds of impossible architecture that Hogwarts boasted the chamber could be anywhere. Hell, it could even be out a window that was really a door spelled to look like a window.

* * *

It was a secreted away Susan and Holly that next Tuesday that overheard a very interesting rumor. "They were some of the only ones that left the feast early and they showed up together after everyone else arrived," echoed the voice of Ron Weasley. "Susan Bones probably isn't the heir, but the Potter's never had a girl. It's suspicious if you ask me, the whole thing."

"Maybe they're pretending to be the boy-who-lived's sister just 'cause they like the attention," Seamus Finnigan offered. "The Prophet said Harry Potter was off being trained by all kinds of experts and stuff. Can't really deny her if he isn't around so it's a pretty good cover."

Holly thought these two boys had the brains of a melon. She didn't say anything though. _Way to busy enjoying my Susan – I mean – my meal to care to give them a piece of my mind anyway._ Holly hoped that her being the heir wasn't a common rumor running about. She got enough staring done at her just from her last name.

* * *

As is turned out, the Hogwarts rumor mill was a lot more crazy than Holly thought. Not only were people staring at her thinking she might be the heir of Slytherin, but she was also now Harry Potter's evil twin because of it. Holly tried her best not to let it get to her though, instead just distracting herself with her runes, enchanting, homework or Susan. It was actually getting a little hard to push Susan out of her mind the longer the year went on. She was starting to get mildly worried if she was honest. Maybe she could talk to her after the Quidditch game they decided to go to that weekend.

It wasn't as overcast of a day as Holly would have hoped, but they did luck out with the Hufflepuff stands having their back to the sun at that time, so they were protected by some amount of shadow. Worst case scenario, Holly could just leave if she started having problems. She never bothered to go to any games last year but since they were actually asked to come to one this year it seemed like a good enough reason to risk the sun.

It was a bit of a weird game, all things considered. The chasers and keepers made perfect sense. The beaters made for a bit of an odd twist, but with witches and wizards being a bit more sturdy than muggles and having much faster and more efficient healing it wasn't a crazy idea. The seeker made absolutely no sense to Holly, though. Why in the world would you have one person's single action be worth 15 times the value of a coordinated effort from the entire rest of the team? Not only that, but the game didn't end until one of them did that single action of catching a tiny golden ball? Why not just use a timer and have them be another chaser?

The longer Holly watched the more confused at the bloody point of the seeker she got. They didn't help any other member of their team and nobody else on their team helped them. They just flew around watching the game from the best possible seat and got to decide if their team won or lost. It honestly felt like some spoiled kid wanted to play the game and his politician dad made it so or something. She couldn't help but wonder, in a sport as violent as this, why nobody just did their best to knock the opposing seeker out and take the penalty shot? Then the other team would have zero chance of ever winning. Maybe it was simply because if both teams did that the game would literally never end.

It was while contemplating the oddities of the sport in front of her that Holly was suddenly deafened in one ear by a shouting Susan. Looking at the girl Holly found Susan to be looking straight at her in abject horror. It was only a moment though. Less than a second of that look before Holly figured out why she was being looked at that way. Unfortunately, Holly gathered that information in a rather painful way.

One of the more violent animated balls that were part of the sport being played had, through either the efforts of one of the players or the ball itself, collided exceedingly hard with Holly's chest. She felt more than one of her ribs snap like twigs. Holly was rather familiar with the feeling of broken ribs and she was pretty sure one of them was hurting way, _way_ too much for just a simple break. She didn't have time to look into that though, as the bloody ball had seemingly bounced off her and she was glaring it down.

Turns out keeping an eye on that ball was a good call since it turned right around and was coming back for seconds. Swiftly ducking to the ground the bludger snapped the top of Holly's seat and slammed into the floor behind her. Had she not moved that would have easily been her head instead. It was at that moment that Holly realized she was essentially being attacked by a cannonball. Instead of a barrage of blasts though it was just one ball firing itself over and over again.

Holly had to dodge out of the way of another strike shortly after the last. She wasn't quite fast enough to fully get out of the way through and it crushed her calf into the floor. If not for the inability to get any meaningful amount of hair into her lungs for some reason Holly would have been screaming her head off. Thankfully Susan, who had been trying to stop the stupid ball with a spell after it started to come back for the second hit, finally managed to nail it with a spell that stopped it in place.

Trying to catch her breath to thank Susan Holly could do little more than wheeze and cough up blood. Well, that certainly explained the one broken rib that hurt way more than it should. So on top of a caved in chest, broken leg, and mental trauma that will no doubt forever make her dislike this stupid game she had a punctured lung. A tinkling sound alerted Holly that the locket that protected her from the sun had also been completely shattered and had just fallen off its chain.

How Holly wished she could swear right now. She needed all the air she could manage though so couldn't spare the breath or the time. When she saw that the fop, Lockhart, was the teacher nearest to her and headed her way she _really_ wished she could swear. Hell, she wished she could just tell him to leave her the hell alone. She didn't need any sort of help from his incompetence. She already came close to death once, she didn't need to come close a second time today.

Clearly, Susan must have seen the utter panic in Holly's eyes though. As when Lockhart got close enough to start offering whatever aid he thought she needed Susan got between him and her and demanded he back off. When he insisted that Holly needed his help immediately Susan insisted he either show her a healer's license or gets away from her friend. Holly could have kissed that girl for that.

Soon enough though Holly was being floated away on a conjured stretcher back to the school and the bewitched bludger was being looked over. Holly didn't know if the game was still being played or not and she really didn't care. Susan, the angel she was, appeared to have noticed the broken locket and not only picked it up for Holly but was standing on the side of her needed to block the sun from hitting her head.

Getting to the hospital wing Holly could hear Madam Pomfrey asking which player got injured. Upon being told it was an audience member she seemed almost as pissed at the sport as Holly was. Almost. Holly's leg was apparently an easy enough fix that it was barely worth mentioning. The ribs would have been only slightly more worrying, however, the one puncturing her lung had to be vanished and the lung itself sealed with a rather complicated spell in Greek. The vanished rib needed to be regrown so Holly was forced to stay in the hospital wing at least overnight. Holly wasn't sure if she could regrow a bone with her empowered regeneration so it was welcome assistance.

Before Holly could protest that it was Saturday and she had something important to do a bottle of sleeping draught was shoved down her throat and she felt herself slipping away into the land of Morpheus.

* * *

Holly awoke several hours later to a disturbance on her bed. The Hufflepuff dorms were very nice but Holly still hadn't kicked the habit of being a very light sleeper from her time with the Dursleys. Lifting her head, her chest feeling like it was being poked from the inside with a thousand needles, Holly saw none other than the house elf from that summer.

"Dobby?" Holly managed to only wheeze a tiny bit as she spoke.

"Holly Potter was not supposed to come back to school," the little elf hissed.

Holly couldn't help but stare at the little guy. He really was weird looking. "Please tell me all the crazy things that have been happening to me were this danger. If it was you doing those I'm going to strangle you to death."

"Dobby is used to death threats," he said with subdued expression. "Dobby had to make sure Holly Potter stayed away from Hogwarts."

Letting her head fall back to the bed Holly really wished she could move her chest without it exploding in pain. She was right pissed off with this elf and his idea of helping her. "Dobby," Holly said with ice in her voice. "You came very close to killing me today."

"No! Never kill, horribly maimed, but never would Dobby kill."

"If your stupid bludger had hit a little more to the right it would have been my heart that was punctured instead of my lung. If I hadn't managed to duck the second attack it would have turned my skull into a red smear."

Dobby looked right cowed by those words. Before he could say anything more though there were sounds of people coming into the hospital wing. He popped away with the snap of his fingers before he could be seen. Holly just stared up at the ceiling, idly listening in to who got hurt this late at night. She didn't recognize the name, Creevey, at first but when they mentioned a camera it clicked. That creepy kid who constantly tried taking pictures of her just because she was related to the boy-who-lived.

She felt a little bad for the kid. It seemed whoever was hunting down cats in the name of Slytherin had upgraded to first years. Holly just hoped when he got to second years he didn't target any of her friends. It was a little weird that the Headmaster didn't think the Chamber of Secrets being opened was a question of who, but why. Did he already know who was doing it? If he did, why wasn't he stopping them? It had Holly on edge and she didn't like it.

* * *

The next time Holly awoke it was with an angel looking down at her. "Hey there, Susan."

"Morning, Holly. Feeling better?"

"Much, actually. When Madam Pomfrey told me regrowing bones hurt she wasn't kidding."

"It's Sunday and you didn't get anything to eat last night. I figured I better get here early so you didn't go crazy." She chuckled and moved a bit closer. "There's apparently some sort of dueling club thing starting up. A student was attacked and petrified last night so I guess they want us to be a bit better at defending ourselves. With this and last year's DADA professor, it's really no wonder that they think we need a club for it."

Holly just nodded, all her attention focused on not pulling Susan to her and biting her. It got harder and harder the closer Susan got. Holly finally lost that battle when Susan sat on the edge of her bed and undid the top button of her uniform. Eliciting a small squeak of surprise from the other girl Holly pulled Susan into an embrace. Being mindful enough to check that the curtains around her bed were closed already Holly put everything else out of her mind but the girl in her arms.

Pulling Susan closer still so that she was essentially in Holly's lap she gently ran her hands up and down the girl's back. Pressing her nose and mouth to her neck she couldn't help but take a deep breath, just the smell of her best friend summoning forth all the past memories of her meals with her and the hugs they'd shared. She figured she must have surprised Susan a bit more than she thought, as the other girl's breathing was coming in slightly ragged breaths like she'd just ran around the room a few times.

Softly pressing her mouth to Susan's neck where she'd already figured out was the best place for this sort of thing Holly paused for a moment. She vaguely wondered if this counted as a sort of kiss but the thought was soon pushed from her mind as she let her fangs sink into the creamy flesh beneath them. She felt the girl in her arms stiffen a little, but quickly relaxed afterwards.

They remained just like that for upwards of a minute. During that time Holly had tightened her hold on the girl just a little and continued to rub her arms up and down Susan's back. Susan's breathing had gotten a little more ragged and Holly was a bit worried about it by the time she pulled away. She had to feel around for her charm bracelet on the table beside the bed but found it easily enough. With a quick swipe of her tongue to get rid of the little bit of blood that started to trickle down Susan's neck, Holly used her band-aid charm to cast a minor healing spell on the small wound.

With a small shudder, Susan carefully climbed off of Holly and returned to her seat next to the bed. Taking the blood replenishing potion she brought with her Susan was very glad she didn't have quite enough blood in her head to blush as brightly as she otherwise would have.

"Wanna go to that dueling club when Pomfrey says you can leave then?"

"Sure."


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: From this chapter onwards, if you need me to repeat the disclaimer, just go to an earlier chapter for it. It still does and always will apply.

A/N: Sorry for the much longer delay between this chapter and the last. A particularly bad length of depression had me with little energy or desire to do more than just function. I'm feeling a bit better now, though, so hopefully I shall be able to get some more written.

Thank you ever so much for the comments, as well. Unless you were one of the couple of anonymous comments that were little more than disgusting homophobia and/or sexist remarks. Those I am not so thankful for. I also want to apologize for any inappropriate use of neutral pronouns (they/them) that I've used. It's a habit I seem to have picked up from conversing with some trans friends and will try to pay more attention too it in my writing. I tried to go back and fix some of that in chapters after the first two.

* * *

As it turned out, the dueling club wasn't set to actually be held until after lunch. So, with time to kill Susan and Holly made their way to the Hufflepuff common room. Hannah was the first to greet them and ask if Holly was alright, but a good many other 'puffs did so after her. It brought a tiny smile to the corner of Holly's mouth and she was given a few smiles in return when she told them she was fine if a tiny bit sore.

On their way to their dorm room, Holly and Susan ran into the only second year Hufflepuff that didn't share a room with them. Holly was never quite sure why Sally-Ann Perks had a room to herself, but the girl seemed nice enough if a bit shy. Helping the girl up from the floor Holly quickly became aware of a pretty good reason she might have requested her own room, however.

It was subtle, but as Holly apologized and help Sally-Ann she couldn't help but notice one of her legs was obviously false. It was a fairly decent prosthetic, but it was clearly not magical in any way as it did little better than a peg would have. It hadn't seemed to bother her in her normal movements, but the awkward action of standing up from the floor wasn't quite one that she had practiced. With another apology to Sally-Ann, Holly moved into her dorm with a thought to maybe look into what sorts of false limbs the magical world could produce.

Sitting down at her desk Holly took out the notebook she got for her birthday and started to read over a few of her more recent entries. She had a few ideas she was trying to figure out runes to make work for and started to put more effort into that task while Susan sat with her legs crossed on her bed. It wasn't long that the girls sat before Holly became aware of a problem she needed to take care of with some haste. A small beam of sunlight on her desk from an improperly shut set of curtains had her leaning back in her seat and looking over her shoulder at Susan.

"Hey, do you still have my locket? I saw you pick it up after I got hurt," Holly inquired.

Wandering over to her robes that were draped over the chair to her own desk Susan rummaged through the inner pockets before pulling out the small, busted locket and handed it to Holly. It had been bent and mangled from the impact of the rogue bludger and one of the two tiny hinges seemed to have snapped. Putting on her Magesight Glasses and activating their enchantments Holly opened the locket as much as she could and started to examine it.

She could have just brought it to Professor Flitwick, who she was told had done the bulk of the work making it, but she'd never actually taken the time to examine the thing. Now that she was doing just that she was a bit confused as to why she never did so before. It was also the only piece of enchanted jewelry that she'd never, ever taken off. Normally she took all her things off for showering and most of them for sleeping.

The more she looked at the runes and mostly faded magic on the broken object the more her expression morphed from one of curiosity to mild confusion to anger and outright horror. "What the absolute fuck?" Holly exclaimed with more venom in her voice than Susan had ever heard from the girl.

"What? What's wrong" Susan asked, peeking over Holly's shoulder at the locket on her desk with more than a little concern.

"I... I... This stupid piece of garbage is what's wrong!" Holly gestured angrily to the broken locket. "There are enchantments I sort of expected to be there, a weak sort of light shield to protect me from the sun and a preset glamor, but that's not even close to all that's there.

"There are enchantments for siphoning magic, but instead of being like my Shield Bracelet and needing me to opt in to giving it magic, it just goes and steals it. It doesn't steal a little magic, either, it's set up to take so much if I still used a wand it would probably be just as effective as my knife at casting spells. No wonder my Shield Bracelet can still only hold a pretty weak shield even after I tried to amplify it.

"Even beyond that, there are enchantments that seem to be targeted at affecting the mind of the wearer. I can't tell what exactly they do, but I have a vague idea of a few things it might have done. There's also... Something else. I don't have any idea what, but it has a decent chunk of the same runes for siphoning magic, but... Different."

"Different how? Like, is this thing killing you or something" Susan asked with growing horror, her hand reflexively reaching for the comm earring she wore that could call her Aunt.

"Hold on, let me..." Holly didn't finish her sentence as she started rummaging around her tiny library of runic reference books. The last enchantment seemed to be written in a variant of Futhark that she wasn't very familiar with. Lucky for her there was a handy little table that let you figure out what variant you were working with since there were quite a handful of Futhark runic languages.

"This section is the one I already knew," she told Susan, pointing with her knife. "It's basically just a prompting to draw energy from one place and move it to another. In most cases the energy type is magic. This line of runes here is that, for example."

"Alright, with you so far," Susan nodded.

"This symbol here is where you'd specify _what_ you're targeting, followed by _where_ you're targeting. In this case the where is the wearer of the locket. The what, however, seems to be... It's, like, a rune not in the book. It sort of looks like a mixture of Othilia and Uruz. The first is a rune for genetics, inherited property and ancestral things. The second is a rune for power, primal creative power and gateways."

"What exactly does that mean?" Susan asked with some confusion.

"Well, first off whoever wrote this is way more advanced with runes than I am, because mixing runes together like that is way high level. It's the only rune like that in the entire sequence, however, so it could just be that they got help with that one single rune by someone better," Holly began. "What it could mean, however, is a little unclear. I'm pretty sure though that it's targeting some sort of inherited or genetic power of mine. The only thing I can think of would be... Vampire stuff, maybe?"

Susan took a few steps back and sat on Holly's bed with a thoughtful expression on her face. She stood back up and returned to where she was to look over Holly's shoulder. "What about the rest? What does that do?"

"Um..." Holly blushed and looked to the side. "The rest only sort of makes sense. It's written in a way that I haven't studied yet. I um... Could maybe guess though?" With a nod from Susan Holly read over the last part of the line of runes a few times before she started to hum and haw about what it could be.

After a somewhat awkwardly long amount of time, during which Susan had sat back down on Holly's bed, Holly looked up from the locket with something of a guess in mind. "Nearest I can figure is that it... Deletes or destroys something?"

"So," Susan offered her own idea. "Basically what you're saying is that enchantment very likely steals your vampiric powers or energy and just gets rid of it?" Holly could only nod with a bit of unsurety and a lot of frustration and not a tiny bit of anger.

Holly got up from her desk chair and flopped onto her bed, her palms covering her eyes. Accidentally pressing her Magesight Glasses into her face she removed them and tossed them onto her desk before returning her palms to her eyes. Why in the world would someone put such a thing on the locket meant to protect her from sunlight? Was it Professor Flitwick that did that or did someone else? One oddity could have been an accident, two could have been written off as gross negligence, but three? Three such things was clearly deliberate.

The possible draining of any sort of vampiric energy wasn't what really worried Holly. Sure, it was absolutely terrible and maybe explained why she wasn't feeling the rushes of energy or growing stronger like she was told she would. It wasn't the worst of the three things though. Hell, not even the extra loss of magical energy was all _that_ bad. It's not like her focus of choice could even use all that much energy at a time anyway.

No, what had Holly shaking as she lay there on her bed were the enchantments that did unknown things with her mind as a target. They could have done anything from force her to follow orders she didn't want to, remove memories, or even change her personality. Unfortunately she would probably never know what exactly the enchantments did because the specifics were, for lack of a better word, programmed into the runes with a charm or some other form of magic that didn't leave marks. It was still sort of there, but only enough for her to tell what kind of magic it was, not what exactly it did.

Swearing under her breath Holly jumped just slightly as she felt someone hug her from the side. Uncovering her eyes she discovered Susan had placed herself beside Holly on her bed to hold her, softly running a hand through her hair. It felt... Really, really nice, actually.

"Whatever it was, whatever that thing was doing to you, is gone now," Susan whispered. "It isn't going to do you any harm anymore and now that you know how it works you can make your own, better one. You're not the smartest person I know, but you're pretty high on that list and think in some pretty weird ways sometimes. So I know you'll be able to take even more than most people could from that thing."

Holly was speechless. She'd never, not ever, been spoken to in a way like Susan was doing now. It was so quite but she could feel such warmth in her voice it gave Holly goosebumps. Slowly, carefully, Holly rolled onto her side and wrapped her arms around Susan similarly to how she was holding Holly. They stayed like that for a good many minutes before Holly finally said anything.

"Thanks," was her simple, whispered message.

* * *

When it was revealed who exactly would be in charge of the dueling club Holly and Susan couldn't help but let out a small groan while Hannah and Hermione both looked excited. The latter reaction seemed to be more common amongst the female population of the school, but it wasn't as common as it would have been earlier in the year.

By and large, however, the reaction to seeing Professor Snape wipe the floor with Lockhart with a single spell was soft laughter. The next widespread reaction shared by the crowd was a mixture of mild confusion and surprise. Not at the suggestion that two students should come up to demonstrate instead of Lockhart and Snape, but at who exactly was called up.

Summoned to the stage by Professor Snape was the one and only Draco Malfoy. However, called up by Professor Lockhart was the wandless Holly Potter. She, as well as a few others, tried to argue that point, she couldn't exactly duel in the manner expected of her without a wand, but Lockhart wouldn't hear it. He all but physically pulled her onto the dueling platform and told her he was certain she would 'figure it out' and that was that.

So it was that Holly found herself standing opposite Draco Malfoy on a dueling platform in front of a very large percentage of the entire student body and more than a couple professors. Saying she was nervous was putting it lightly. She quickly asked if she was even allowed to use her knife, and she was thankfully, or maybe not so thankfully, told she could use it. She was also told that she couldn't actually cut or stab Malfoy with it though.

"Wands at the ready," came the mildly inaccurate command from Professor Lockhart.

Holly raised her dagger in front of her face in much the same way as Malfoy raised his wand as they were shown. "Scared, Potter?" was the attempt at messing with Holly that Malfoy offered and Holly couldn't help but be disappointed that was all he'd managed to cook up. Even still, the situation had her rapidly starting to bleed off her nervous energy and fill with a sort of... Excitement. She couldn't help but offer a tiny grin as her response to Malfoy, starting to shake a little with the excess energy flooding her limbs. She also couldn't help but notice that her blade morphed in her hand. Unlike last time where it turned into what she playfully called 'carving mode' this time the only change was the blade turning almost comically dull.

Turning on their heels and lowering their wands Holly and Malfoy stepped to their respective ends of the platform. With each step Holly couldn't help but almost feel the growing disadvantage on her end. She knew how to cast spells a bit more effectively than before, but it was limited to melee range. She was fast, sure, but she doubted she was fast enough to clear the entire distance between them before Malfoy got off a spell, maybe even two.

"On the count of three," Lockhart called out. "One... Two..."

Two was as far as he got before Malfoy started to cast his first spell. " _Everte Statum_!" he called out before an orange colored wave rocketed from his wand.

Holly's first thought was probably the most Hufflepuff thing she could imagine. _But that isn't a disarming spell!_ Then reality caught up with her as she was thrown back several feet, doing a flip in the air before slamming down onto the floor. Quickly getting to her feet Holly couldn't help but internally bemoan the impracticality of dueling in robes.

Rushing forwards and clearing an almost scary amount of distance Holly managed to dodge Malfoy's next spell. Holly wasn't entirely sure what it was that Malfoy threw at her, but her dodge had managed to get her robes tangled in her feet and she tumbled to the ground. Swearing as everyone laughed at her Holly rapidly shed her robe before rolling out of the way of another spell from Malfoy, who had failed to cast his previous spell because he, too, was laughing at Holly.

Growling in frustration Holly once again sped towards her opponent, the world almost seeming to slow down a little as she did. She ignored a few gasps at just how fast she cleared the distance between Malfoy and herself. He let loose another spell, this one seeming to conjure something. Holly thought it was rope in the tiny amount of time she had to process it, so just slashed at it with her dagger, which became sharp exactly when she needed it to.

The next thing she knew Holly was standing over the somewhat curled up body of a groaning Draco Malfoy. He was holding his stomach that she'd just punched and she was holding his wand. Holly was barely even breathing a bit more heavily, her heart beating quite quickly in comparison. Glancing over her shoulder she saw what looked like a mostly formed snake sliced in half on the stage behind her.

Looking down at Draco, Holly couldn't help but give him a large smile before laughing. "Do you even know the disarming spell? I mean, I don't, but at least I thought of alternative means of taking your wand from you instead of flinging snakes at peo-"

Holly was abruptly cut off by a screaming Draco Malfoy. She might have mocked the girlyness of the shriek, but the words that came out after it had her paralyzed in terror.

"Monster! Dark Creature! She's a Merlin-damned vampire!"


	11. Chapter 11

Amelia Bones let out a sigh as she took a seat in the chair next to a bed in the Hogwarts hospital wing. She'd just come from her second meeting with a number of her Aurors that had been patrolling the school due to the petrification of a student, the staff of Hogwarts, and a representative of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. To say it was a stressful meeting is putting it lightly. She didn't expect Holly to keep her status as a vampire a secret from the general student population of the school forever, but she also didn't think it would come out this violently.

"What a mess," Amelia mumbled to herself. The girl laying in the bed in front of her still wasn't even awake yet and they'd already passed judgment on her. There's no need to let a 'dangerous, dark creature' such as her defend herself, after all. 'What next? Letting rabid dogs be given access to legal defense?'

It would be one thing if Holly was in a coma or something, but no. It hadn't even been a full 24 hours and the ministry had made their choice. It wasn't as bad as it could have been, not by a long shot, but only by the graces of Albus Dumbledore. If that didn't feel like a deal with the Devil Amelia didn't know what would.

As Amelia sat there she looked over her notes on the events that transpired on the first and probably only dueling club meeting. After the Malfoy heir called out that Holly Potter was a vampire there was a delay of more than a few seconds before the crowd began to panic. It was low level, at first, but it wasn't long before demands for the truth of that statement were made. At Holly admitting to the truth with a small, terrified nod, the panic immediately spiked.

Amelia looked up from her notes at the sleeping girl. There would be no permanent damage, but some of the curses fired off by some of the more jumpy students had been rather nasty. It had been a few hours now, though, so the broken arm, bruising, cut side, and smattering of minor prank level jinxes had been fixed up or healed naturally. It seemed that Holly's vampiric healing had finally kicked into gear to what Amelia expected it to be instead of what it had been earlier in the year. Something worth looking into, that.

After the spells had started being fired off in Holly's direction Hannah, Susan, and a number of other Hufflepuffs came to Holly's defense until the Aurors at the door to the great hall could get there and break everything up. After everything had been calmed down a 5th year Slytherin student, one Megan Rowstock, who apparently lost her older brother to a vampire, fired off a, thankfully nonlethal, spell at Holly. It knocked her unconscious and she has yet to wake, but should in the next hour or so by all estimations.

It was only a few minutes after that thought that Amelia heard the rustle of bedsheets. Looking up she saw Holly looking around in mild disorientation.

"Good afternoon," Amelia said quietly. "Are you feeling okay?"

Holly nodded after registering who had asked her a question and what it was. She seemed to check herself and the end table over before glancing around, looking for something. "Where's my robe?"

"Unfortunately I was informed it was torn apart, either during or after the... Events after your duel with the Malfoy heir yesterday. We can get you a replacement, however, if you need one," Amelia answered.

"Um... Actually, I don't really care about the robe itself. I had a few things in the pockets though that I would prefer not to lose," Holly explained looking a little sheepish. Amelia was relieved to see that she was rather quickly recovering. In fact, if Amelia was being honest, she fully expected Holly to be a bit more torn up or emotional about all this. Something seemed off about Holly. Off in a good way so far it seemed, but still out of what she'd learned to be normal for Holly.

"May I get assistance from a Hogwarts house-elf?" Amelia called out softly to the space to the side of her chair. Not but a moment later there was a pop and a creature similar in appearance to Dobby was standing where Amelia was looking. It was clearly much better-taken care of than Dobby, however, and had the Hogwarts emblem on its outfit.

"Yes, Missy Bones?" the elf inquired.

"Could you please gather any and all things that were in the pockets of Holly's school robes that aren't in her room that were lost, taken, or otherwise misplaced and put them there?" Amelia asked kindly. The elf nodded wildly and popped away.

"So am I being expelled then?" Holly suddenly asked.

"What?"

"Everyone knows I'm not human anymore, right? Am I being kicked out?"

Amelia gave a sigh and removed her monocle, wiping it off with her robe. "No, you're not going to be expelled, Holly. However..." There was a long pause as Amelia put together how she was going to inform Holly of the decision the Ministry of Magic, the school's Board of Governors, and staff came to. "It has been decided that anyone who hit you with a spell in the great hall yesterday shall be punished. However, with news of your status as a 'Non-Wizard Part-Human' getting out, you are henceforth barred from learning anything under the purview of 'Wizardry.'"

"So... I'm not expelled but I can't attend classes? Isn't that basically the same thing?" Holly asked with a mixture of confusion and frustration.

"Actually, no," Amelia explained. "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is the school's full name. That isn't just a statement that they teach both boys and girls. The only school I know of off the top of my head that only allows one gender is the Salem Witch's Institute for Girls.

"No, 'Wizardry' refers only to those kinds of magic that require a wand. So you are no longer allowed to attend Charms, Transfiguration, and Defense Against the Dark Arts as a student. You may be asked to attend lessons on vampires in DADA, however, for a first-hand account on the topic."

"So," Holly began with less frustration in her expression. "Witchcraft then is anything that doesn't use a wand. But that... That doesn't sound too bad, actually. It wasn't so bad just yet, but I could see the harder spells in those classes getting downright impossible for my knife to cast because of the power requirements. First-year charms and transfigurations were barely there as is, and so far I've only managed a handful of the second year ones.

"Until next year though that leaves me only taking, what... History, Herbology, Potions, and Astronomy?"

Amelia was mildly surprised Holly was taking this as well as she was, but the girl did have a point with her problems with actually using a wand, legal issues notwithstanding. "As your guardian I've been informed that you may use the free blocks this gives you for self-study, hire a tutor for a topic of your choice, or do something like be assistant to a professor."

Holly nodded at that, thoughtful. It wasn't long after that Susan and Hannah showed up, having been at lunch until now, and were soon joined by Hermione. Amelia had work to do and didn't stay much longer. Hedwig also made an appearance, much to Holly's delight, and was quickly brought into the conversation. Holly didn't quite know why nobody but her seemed to actually talk to Hedwig, but Hedwig didn't appear to care.

* * *

Holly walked back to the Hufflepuff common room alone save for the single uror that was escorting her. Since Colin Creevey was petrified Aurors were patrolling the school and escorting people to and from class. According to Susan, if she hadn't contacted her aunt on the comms earing that Holly had made for her then they wouldn't have been any the wiser that anything was going on at Hogwarts at all. Apparently, Dumbledore tried to assure Aunt Amelia that Aurors wouldn't be needed but she wasn't hearing it.

Speaking of her comms earring, Holly needed to fix hers. It wasn't so much that it was broken, but it seems without that locket sapping her magic and whatever else it did on her she was healing a lot faster and more completely. Thus, her ears were no longer pierced and the earring had fallen out. Luckily she hadn't lost it, so she could easily just convert it into a clip-on earring instead.

Holly was feeling rather strange since she'd gotten rid of that locket, actually. She'd always been a rather cynical, pessimistic person, prone to bouts of what she hoped was only mild angst. Since shortly before arriving at that dueling club fiasco though she'd felt almost hyperactive. Energy felt practically vibrating right under her skin, flooding her muscles. She felt positively... _Positive._ She'd just been told she was a dark creature and not even human anymore, couldn't even attend all her classes, but she couldn't help but feel _happy_. The only sad thing she could even summon to her mind was how alien that happy feeling was.

Idly wondering if she should look into some kind of tutor into one topic or another Holly wandered into her dorm room and headed for her desk. She didn't have any classes at all on Monday aside from Astronomy late in the evening, and the class load on the rest of the week was rather light. So until late today she was totally free. What to do, what to do...

Sitting at her desk Holly briefly checked to make sure everything that was in her robe pockets was there. Magesight Glasses, Hungry Fork, fist-sized red gem, noteboo- wait. Fist-sized red gem? _Where did this come from?_ Holly examined the stone for a few moments trying to remember where she'd seen it before.

 _Isn't this that stone that Mirror Me put in my pocket school last year?_ She thought on possible reasons that the house elves could have possibly put this on her desk. Auntie Amelia told the elf to return anything that was that was in or taken from her pockets to her dorm. Thinking back on it hard Holly couldn't help but admit that she never actually removed this red stone from her pocket once Mirror Her put it there. How did the elves know about that, though? Were they omnipotent or omniscient or something? Was it just some kind of magic they had?

Suddenly Holly didn't feel bad at all about not being human if that was the kind of colleagues she would have. If anything she felt just a little subpar.

Fixing her earring was mildly more frustrating than she thought it would be, but still a rather simple affair. A glance at the clock on her desk informed her she still had _hours_ until classes ended for the day, though. As Holly sat there thinking about what her friends were doing in class she was suddenly overcome with the strongest out-of-body feeling she'd ever had. She snapped out of it quickly but... What was that? She could swear she saw and heard something just then.

Focusing on that feeling again it was a few dozen seconds before it returned again. Not snapping herself out of it this time, though, Holly could see and hear as if she were in the middle of Transfigurations class. She was sitting in the wrong desk, though, and couldn't control where she was looking. _What in the world is going on?_ She couldn't help but think. She watched the strange scene in front of her for a few minutes before she got a very strong hint as to what she was seeing.

Holly had already gathered that she was somehow seeing through somebody else's eyes that was currently attending the 2nd year Transfigurations class. The person she was seeing through the eyes of suddenly raised their hand to ask a question and when called on was referred to by Professor McGonagall as 'Ms. Bones.'

Snapping out of the out-of-body-experience again Holly couldn't help but freak out a little. How the hell was she seeing through her best friend's eyes? Since when was Susan best a friend instead of just a friend? That felt a little unfair to Hannah, but then again Hannah hadn't volunteered to feed her. If that alone wasn't best friend level stuff Holly didn't know what was. Anyway, best friend, whatever. How was she seeing through Susan's eyes and hearing through her ears?

Quickly checking the scroll of vampire information she got from Madam Pomfrey last year Holly couldn't find anything at all that even hinted that they could do this sort of thing. Now that she looked at it, this school had a rather small amount of information on it. Madam Pomfrey said it was everything the Ministry had confirmed about vampires... Was there not actually a lot of information about them they knew to be 100% accurate? Or did they just not care to gather it?

Never before had Holly felt so angry at the fact that the Defense teachers at Hogwarts were so awful. They were supposed to have studied vampires for the first three years but all Holly learned from last year was that they hate garlic, and that was first-hand knowledge she collected. This year all she learned was the kind of hair care products Lockhart was wearing when he defeated one with an overpowered Lumos charm. Something she knew didn't work that way.

Holly wanted some source of information about what she was that was more informative but had no idea where to actually look for it. All the notes on vampires Hermione had given Susan and Hannah were basically just how to identify one and theories that were a shotgun blast of quality and accuracy. If Hermione of all people couldn't find better than that in the Hogwarts library then Holly doubted she'd be able to do much better.

With a sigh, Holly decided to just put that aside for now and work on her current projects. She also needed to order some supplies and some more books. The Hogwarts library was good, but there were some truly questionable guidelines for what goes into the restricted section. Like, why were runes that could mimic transfigurations in there? Any and all books with anything beyond vague mentions about rituals were also in there. With Holly being limited only to magic that didn't use a wand she wasn't going to let ideas that something was 'dark' stop her from learning an entire branch of magic.

Besides, she was a 'dark creature' anyway, so what did she care? Birds of a feather should stick together, right? Even if one was a real bird and the other was just a... Drawing of a bird? _Alright, this analogy is starting to break down. Back to work refining my Rune Spider._

* * *

 _"Holly?"_ came the voice of Susan through Holly's communication earring.

Tapping it with her finger to answer the call Holly hummed her acquiescence to being pulled into a conversation from her reading. She didn't have class today, Tuesday, until after lunch so she was in the library.

 _"I just had a thought about... Lunch,"_ Susan was almost muttering, so she must still be in class. _"How are you going to eat it without the Auror escort being a problem? Or another student, for that matter. Hufflepuff has been rather accepting, but the rest of the school is barely not openly hostile towards you. If someone saw us all alone they might take advantage of that situation."_

Holly shut her book and sat back in her chair. Damn, she hadn't thought of that. She'd explained in the Hufflepuff common room that she wasn't dangerous unless starving and there was plenty of freely given blood for her for that not to be an issue. She may have implied that it was animal blood, but humans were technically animals, too, right? The rest of the school, though, she couldn't do that with unless she did it in the Great Hall or something. Not an option she felt comfortable with.

"I'll look into that, Sue," Holly finally replied. "I have an idea or two, but let me investigate their effectiveness."

 _"Okay, Holly. Be safe. The last time you ate was Sunday morning instead of Saturday evening like normal, so if you need to postpone your meal by a few hours, do so."_

Holly didn't really know why Susan hadn't just suggested she go back to animal blood, but she wasn't going to comment. There wasn't any reason like she gave back at Bones Manor to rely on Susan for food, but Holly wasn't going to say anything unless it became a real problem. Maybe not even until it became a major problem.

"I wonder if I should ask Hermione if being so attached to someone is healthy," Holly mumbled to herself as she headed back to her dorm.

* * *

Susan, having never seen Holly's invisibility cloak, was initially exceedingly impressed. That was until Holly admitted to it being a family heirloom, not something she herself made. Susan was less impressed, but still fascinated by the quality of such an item after such a long time.

"It's not a perfect method of sneaking around," Holly admitted. "It doesn't block smell or sound and I imagine it's a pretty awkward thing to sneak around with another person under it with. Still, it's about the size of a blanket, so I had two ideas on what we could do."

"What are those ideas?" Hannah asked, having been included in this planning since she already knew what was going on.

"If either of you knows a silencing charm-" Holly started only to be interrupted by Hannah.

"Oh, I do! I could cast it on your feet so you don't make any noise while sneaking around."

Holly blinked a few times at Hannah in mild bewilderment. "Why in Merlin's name would we go sneaking around with someone turning people into stone on the loose? I was just going to suggest casting a silencing spell on the two of us and hiding under the cloak in the corner so I can eat. The idea, if neither of you knew the spell, was to just have someone stand watch while we hid at the end of the hall under it."

"Oh..." Hannah wilted a little while Susan just giggled at her friend.

"Don't worry Hannah, I think your idea sounded very adventurous. Maybe you've been reading to many novels with complex plots, though," Susan said humorously. "I must say though, I'm impressed you know that spell. It's a few years yet until it's taught in class. Where'd you learn it? And why?"

Hannah went a little pink in the face at that. "Um... Well, you see... An older boy taught it to me?"

"Ooooh? An 'older boy,' eh?" Susan teased.

The two went back and forth for a bit, Susan trying to get Hannah to spill the beans on who her mysterious tutor was but Hannah held firm in her secrecy. Meanwhile, Holly was getting mildly impatient, so she decided to do something to pass the time while Susan and Hannah played around.

Putting on her Magesight Glasses and taking out the mysterious red stone from the mirror Holly began to examine the stone more closely. She didn't think the lens that made seeing runes more easily would be useful in the slightest, so was mildly surprised when parts of the stone lit up. The symbols and shapes that she could see suspended inside the gem weren't familiar in the slightest, however, so while interesting it was rather useless information at present.

The lens that saw magic, on the other hand, was almost blinding to look through. It was all contained inside the gem, but man was it bright! The magic seemed contained inside a sort of hollow orb that all the runes made, but there was a tiny area at the 'top' of the gem where the magic was funneled through a little channel.

Grabbing a magnifying glass from her desk drawer Holly took a much closer look at that channel of magic. It wasn't actually perfectly straight like she thought it was previously. As a matter of fact, the little channel was following a small crack inside the stone. A closer inspection along the channel revealed that the crack started from a rune that was cut just a little too deep in one spot. Some form of stress or another then caused that tiny weakness to crack along the stone.

Turning her attention to the surface of the stone Holly noted that the magic following that crack was right at the surface of the stone, but wasn't leaking out of it. It seemed there wasn't anything letting it conduct out of the stone or something. So what if Holly... Poked it with her dagger?

* * *

Waking with a groan Holly felt someone shaking her by the shoulder. She was a little sore and had no idea what just happened. Opening her eyes with a wince she saw the person shaking her was Susan, with Hannah not far behind looking at something on the floor.

"Are you okay?" Susan asked with obvious concern.

Holly nodded and, with the aid of the wall and Susan, got to her feet. Glancing in Hannah's direction she saw that the blonde was looking at her dagger. It was laying on the floor about halfway between Holly and her desk. A desk that she couldn't help but notice had a rather large charred, burnt spot on it. No red gem was in sight. Her chair was in pieces and her dagger looked... Different.

Wandering over to it Holly knelt down and examined the one and only gift from her mother with concern and not a little interest. The rubies in the top of the hilt and bottom of the blade were black now, just like the gem at the end of the pommel. The blade, previously a light greyish color with red runes she'd never been able to identify along the middle of it, was now a rust red color with runes that shimmered between gold, silver, and copper. If Holly was being honest it was a rather pretty upgrade in appearance.

Looking around for her Magesight Glasses Holly was disheartened to see they were still on her face, but the lens that saw magic was shattered and the one that saw runes was a spiderweb of cracks. A quick check of her face informed her that she had previously been cut somewhat nastily by the glass of that shattering lens, but had already healed fully from the injury.

"Right," Holly said as she picked up her dagger. "This requires looking into. But first, Susan." Without having to say anything more Susan handed Holly her invisibility cloak and stepped closer so she could wrap it around the both of them. Hannah had just enough presence of mind to hit them with a silencing spell before she lost track of where they were.


	12. Chapter 12

AN: Yeah, I know, it's been a long time since my last update. Depression really started kicking my ass, I'm sorry. This specific update is a little shorter than my average but I have the rest of CoS roughed out so look forward to that in the near-ish future. Thank you so much for continuing to read my weird little story and thank you so much more for all the positive and kind reviews.

* * *

So, as it turns out Holly's dagger didn't seem all that different. Sure, it _looked_ much improved now but Holly couldn't figure out what _actually_ changed about it. There was a chance it was only a very specific ability it had now, but Holly had no idea how to activate it if that was the case. Maybe it was similar or the same to how one activated the big gemstone that changed her knife. Didn't someone mention it having a name or something? Gosh, that was nearly half a year back now and Holly wasn't exactly in great shape when it was mentioned.

Oh well, maybe someone else knows. And who better to ask for weird, probably useless-but-not-really information than Hermione? So, bearing that in mind, Holly turned to Susan after their latest failed test to see what the new and improved dagger did showed them that it could not teleport to her in non-emergencies.

"Hey, Susan, I think we're going about this all wrong," Holly thought aloud as she recalled her dagger from the floor across the room with her control ring.

"Oh?" Susan replied. "What do you propose we do then?"

"Well, clearly blind testing is going nowhere fast. Agreed?" Holly nodded in return to Susan's shrug and nod of agreement. "So what say we covertly ask Hermione about the weird Mirror-Me-Given-Rock and see if she knows anything? We can build our testing from that."

"Wait, what? Mirror you? What does a rock from a mirror have to do with... Oooh, you caused that little explosion earlier with that, huh? Well, it's worth a shot. If she isn't in the library then she's probably in her common room and we'll have to wait until tomorrow to talk to her."

Leaving the abandoned classroom that Holly and Susan appropriated for their testing the two Hufflepuffs headed for the library. They managed to find the Lion's resident bookworm, but sadly she knew nothing about stones that came from mirrors.

"However," Hermione said as she shut the charms book she'd had open. "If you want a book on magical stones then I perhaps recommend starting wit-"

"Nah," Holly cut Hermione off before she could gather steam about book recommendations. "I've got a couple of books on magic and stones, mostly for enchanting, and haven't seen any mention of it. If anything it looked most like a really big garnet or maybe ruby.

"Then again... It was more like an enchanted stone rather than a stone for enchanting. I saw all kinds of magic contained inside it and it had a bunch of runes I didn't recognize in the slightest invisibly carved inside it somehow. Let's see, garnets are supposed to symbolize manifestation of magic in physical form, healing, and self-worth. Meanwhile ruby is life force, courage, and passion. So maybe my knife heals people that I stab with it now?"

Susan chuckled and poked Holly in the side with her elbow. "Maybe it heals them by replacing the damaged parts with something that ups their self-worth, like really brave gold or something."

"Utterly preposterous," Hermione huffed. "The only thing that can create gold, even temporarily, is the Philosopher's Stone."

"Oooh, what's that look like?"

"Well," Hermione started only to stop and think. "I read in a book last year that the only one in known existence was made by Nicholas Flamel, an alchemist, who just recently celebrated his 666th birthday. It had the ability to turn any metal into pure gold and produce the Elixir of Life, which grants the imbiber immortality. It was described as looking like a large white and ruby... red... stone."

The three girls sat in silence for nearly a minute, letting what all was just said sink in. It couldn't be true though. Could it? Did Holly actually, accidentally happen upon what is probably the most valuable, priceless magical artifact in the world?

 _AND THEN BREAK IT?_

Susan just barely caught Holly before she hit the floor.

* * *

"Ya know, Hedwig," Holly grumbled from her desk chair. "At first the idea of having, like, half as many classes was kinda neat."

Hedwig gave an amused owly bark.

"Right in one, Hed, right in one. It's more like only having a third of my normal class load. Who knew a school for mostly wand using wizards focuses on wanded magic classes, eh?"

A sarcastic bark.

"I know, right?" Holly laughed and picked up the object she was working on from her desk. "I finished fixing my Magesight Lenses, finally. I managed to improve them, too. Learned a lot of tricks since I first made 'em."

A curious bark.

"Well, I made them goggles now instead of glasses. That way they're a little more robust and I can also carry them around on my neck. I made both lenses do the same thing now, too. They have three settings that are adjusted with this tiny little lever here on the side. One for rune-sight, one for magic-sight and one for both."

A series of barks, a pause, and then another trio of barky hooty noises after Holly pulled the goggles from her eyes to around her neck.

"Heh, noticed that eh? Or... Didn't notice, I guess I should say? Whatever. Yeah, with the goggle strap being more spacious than the... arms? The arms of a pair of glasses I could fit a notice-me-not rune sequence to activate when they're around my neck. Don't want anyone callin' me out for being out of uniform or something stupid."

A single bark of understanding was Hedwig's response to that. There was a rather lengthy pause between the two that was only broken up by the sound of Holly flicking the tiny metal lever on her goggles between each of the three settings. Truth be told she was way more proud of that lever than any other part of the goggles. It basically works the same way that a stick shift in a car does, only way smaller. The lever has a tiny peg sticking out of the inner side that lines up with a tiny bit of metal pushed out of place in each lever position by a spring that lines up with the lever's peg. On that tiny bit of displaced metal is half the rune that tells the goggles what runic sequence to activate and the other half is just beside where it slots into when depressed back into the proper location. Thus, when the peg is in place the lines of the runes-

Owl Bark!

"Uh... Sorry, right, I was going somewhere with the whole classes thing and got totally sidetracked." Holly got out of her chair and flopped onto her back on her bed. "Where was I... Oh, right, having hilariously tiny amounts of class is starting to get exceedingly boring and it hasn't even been a full month yet.

"It probably doesn't help that I'm honestly not overly interested in any of these classes. I mean... Potions is kind of okay, I guess, but Professor Snape can be a bit... He doesn't really explain anything or _teach_ in my opinion. He mostly just points to the instructions on the board, reads the potion's name sometimes, tells us we're doing awful every few minutes, and glowers and sulks. At least he's stopped givin' me that odd look every now and then.

"As for the other three classes... Herbology is literally painful to be in because of all the sun and plants aren't that interesting. History of Magic is a glorified nap-time with bedtime stories about goblin wars. Astronomy's only saving grace for keeping my interest is that it's at night. Have yet to actually discover a use for knowing the constellations."

Ba-a-a-ark.

"Really? You think that would work?"

Prek.

"Alright," Holly hopped to her feet and gave Hedwig a few strokes of her feathers. "I'll run it by Amelia first, though. She's technically my legal guardian and everything, after all."

Hedwig only responded with a short-lived, low warbling kind of noise as Holly tapped her Communication Earring. Muttering 'Amelia' as she did so Holly waited to a lazy count of five before repeating the action. Hopefully, Auntie didn't leave her earring on a table or something, it's basically impossible to tell someone is trying to get in contact with you if you aren't wearing it. Maybe she could make the earring just a little more substantial and add some kind of auto-toggle for that? Maybe based on the little mechanism that kept it on your ear so the louder volume wouldn't bl-

 _"Hello? Holly is that you?"_ Came the voice of Amelia Bones through the Comms Earring.

"Hello, Auntie... You know, it's kind of weird that I call you that, isn't it? I mean, I do 'cause Sue does but you're not really my aunt, so it's kind of inaccurate. You don't mind or anything do y-"

 _"Holly, honey, please get to the point of your call, I'm at work."_

"Right! Sorry, I've had a lot of extra energy lately and it's made me a bit of a chatterbox. I think it's bec-"

 _"Holly."_

"Oh gosh! I'm sorry, again. I wanted to ask you something. Hedwig and I were chatting and I was venting ab- Right, getting to the point. Is it a good idea to maybe drop out of regular Hogwarts classes and just aim for an apprenticeship-like thing with the runes professor here?

"I mean, my current classes here are boring as sin or rather... UNeducational. Potions in the latter, the rest in the former. The electives I can pick from next year are much more interesting looking but... Well, Arithmancy is mostly for spell-making and calculations in their regards. I can't _really_ cast a spell, so can't see a need to ever make my own. Divination sounded pretty brill but apparently, if you don't have 'The Sight' it's utter hogwash. Care of Magical Creatures was on my list of things I wanted to take but um... B-but then I saw that vampires are a 'creature' we study and just felt just of offended. Muggle Studies for someone like me is a hilarious idea. That only leaves runes, which I already study on my own and use a lot. I could even have tutors for anything el-"

 _"HOLLY!"_ Amelia's voice finally managed to cut through the younger girl's rant and got her to shut up. _"We can talk about it more in depth later tonight, okay? In the meantime though... Yes, I can see the logic in everything you've said. S'probably a good reason you're the first vampire to try attending Hogwarts in so many years despite them actually accepting them, unlike most other magical schools._

 _"Speak with your head of house and the runes professor about this idea, alright? I've started poking around for a few tutors like we spoke about in the hospital wing. I'll try to have a decent sized list of what's available in that regard by the end of the week. Now, I have to go, but I'll call you back when I get home tonight. Have a good day, honey."_

"Okay! Thanks, Auntie," Holly couldn't help but giggle. "Oh, by the way, I might have broken a priceless, immortality-giving artifact yesterday. Byetalktoyousoon!" And with that Holly cut the connection between the two Comm Earrings and skipped out of the room. By the time she made it down the hall to the common room, she was humming a jaunty tune and ignoring the second attempt from Amelia to call her back.

"Merlin, why in the world did I actually say that, Hed?" Holly said reflexively before realizing that Hedwig was still back in her dorm. "You know you're going stir crazy when..."

* * *

Bathsheda Babbling was a woman of average height who had just recently hit the still young age of 27. She had somewhat short, very messy blonde hair that complemented her dark blue eyes well. Her accent was slight but did still give away her mixed English and Swedish family tree. She was the youngest professor currently at Hogwarts by five years, the next youngest being Severus Snape.

Currently, Bathsheda found herself looking at Holly Potter, the only vampire she knew of to ever attend Hogwarts. Not to say that such a thing had never happened, Bathsheda just didn't really care to ever look up such information before. Even more interesting than that, however, was what said girl had just asked her.

"You do realize, Ms. Potter, that one doesn't usually apply for an apprenticeship until after they've finished their NEWTs and want to attain a mastery, yes?" Bathsheda leaned forwards at her desk and placed her elbows on its surface, interlocking her fingers as she spoke. "Beyond this, one may not quit a magical school before they've completed their OWLs unless they already have a transfer to another school lined up."

"Ah," the girl brightened but looked rather annoyed about it for some reason. "Funny thing, actually, about that. The other day when I asked my guardian if this was a good idea she said a similar thing. I was curious about that law and wanted to know exactly what the requirements under it all were. So my friends and I combed through the few legal texts available in the library to find the answer to that.

"As it turns out, there are a few things that make both a non-issue and something of a concern. The law in question basically says 'Any witch or wizard who fails to attain at least five passing OWLs by the end of their fifth year of schooling at a magical institution is to have their magic bound and memories of the magical world obliviated.'

"Now, the legal definition of a 'witch or wizard' is a human capable of using magic, more or less. There are a few weird things in there for squibs and stuff. I was going to just let it go at that point, but then I remembered that Hagrid once told me that, strictly speaking, he wasn't supposed to be casting magic. I didn't really know what he meant at the time, so yesterday I uh... Got my friend Susan to go out to his little house and ask him about that."

Holly took a deep breath to calm her nerves just a little and collect her thoughts. This was, without a doubt, the longest she had _ever_ spoken at once and it was honestly kind of tiring. She also couldn't help but notice that Professor Babbling hadn't even so much as raised an eyebrow during all she said. It was kind of unnerving, truth be told, having someone stare at you so intensely for so long.

"Um... R-right, so, basically, the reason he can't is that he was expelled and had his wand snapped. Which is basically what happens if you fail to get five OWLs and such, yeah?" Not even a nod in response. "S-so I couldn't find why he was still around instead of being obliviated or having his magic bound. So I asked auntie Amelia about it and she got back to me this morning on the topic. Apparently, Dumbledore defended Hagrid's ability to stay in the magical world by pointing out that he was a half-giant. As such he technically fit under the category of 'Wizard Part-Human' and when his wand rights, or wizard rights as they used to be called, were stripped of him then fit under the category of 'Non-Wizard Part-Human.'

"In conclusion," Holly straightened her spine back out and looked back up from the floor at the professor. "Seeing as I was, earlier this year, declared a 'Non-Wizard Part-Human' myself I do not fit the classification the law applies to and can drop out whenever I please."

Professor Babbling continued to stare at the young Hufflepuff in silence for some time after that. If she wasn't still breathing and blinking Holly could've sworn she was the next petrification victim. During this entire impromptu staring match Holly was starting to have a doubt or two about asking this crazy woman to be her apprentice. Finally, though, after nearly two minutes Bathsheda gave her a response.

* * *

"So it's technically more of a mentorship than an apprenticeship," Holly said as she lay on her bed staring at the ceiling. "The contract I signed is only partially in effect until next year, so I'll still be a pretty normal student here for the rest of the year. As normal as I am now, anyway. I'll spend a large chunk of my free time learning under her, though."

"What'll change when the year ends?" Susan replied as she ladled the last of her cauldron's contents into a small vial.

"Couple legal things will change. Also, I'll quit taking any other Hogwarts offered courses, stop being a formal student here, and Babbling will more than likely have me act as a sort of assistant when she has class. When I'm not shite at runes anymore she'll probably have me help grade stuff, too."

Susan gave a hum of acknowledgment as she used a cleaning charm on her cauldron before setting it aside. She grabbed one of the recently filled vials from her desk and read the label before turning to look at Holly. "According to Madam Pomfrey, this modified blood replenishing potion has about a five or six-minute delay on it before it kicks in. So let me know when you wanna eat and I'll just take one immediately."

"Neat," Holly sat up and smiled a toothy, fangy smile. "How about right now? I need just a few more hours work to finish my Sun Shield necklace and if I eat now I can focus on that the rest of the evening."

Nodding in agreement and expecting such a response Susan downed the vial in hand. She grabbed Holly's invisibility cloak from the girl's trunk and pulled it over herself. Before Holly could get off her bed she was suddenly tackled on it onto her back and pulled under the cloak as well.

"Should probably put a silencing charm on the cloak," Holly suggested. "You made some pretty odd sounds on Saturday."

The wand of a thoroughly embarrassed Susan poked out from under the cloak and did just that.


	13. Chapter 13

It was a rather quiet Thursday, the last in November, that found Holly sitting at her desk reading over an unfortunately small list of possible tutors that Amelia had sent her. With Amelia's letter, there were also three other letters sent by some of the prospective tutors introducing themselves. Seems they were the more proactive type when it came to finding students. That or they were just strapped for cash and needed the job.

"What do you think, Hedwig?" Holly looked up from the collection of parchment to the bird in question. "This 'Implementation' thing sounds pretty interesting. Of the two ritual tutors on the list I kind of want to go with Mr. Borealis, as he seems a bit more relaxed and specialized into the field. Ms. Penn, however, while sounding very posh and refined in her letter claims to be a vampire as well."

Holly listened to her friend's suggestions and comments with the occasional nod. Looking down at the list of names again Holly gave a small sigh and started to write two letters. "Mr. Silverling's Implementation for sure then. I agree with you that Ms. Penn might be the better choice, too. She'll probably be able to teach me about myself more than anyone else I know of. I just hope she isn't as bad as her letter makes her feel. She writes like she's in a Shakespeare play."

* * *

"Howdy there, you Tree-Girl?"

Holly was speechless. Before her stood a woman who could easily be mistaken for a seventh year. She was a touch under five and a half feet tall and was dressed in a pair of slightly worn muggle blue-jeans, a pair of black leather boots, dark lavender wool sweater, and a pair of narrow rectangular glasses. She had shoulder-length, tousled black hair and eyes that reminded Holly of a storm cloud. Her letter had informed Holly that the woman was of mixed Japanese and French heritage... And she apparently spoke like a cowboy who was trying to fit in with the English by speaking with a half-assed transatlantic accent from the 1940s.

"Uh... Tree-Girl?" Holly finally managed to ask.

"Yeah, get it? 'Cause Holly is a kinda tree, right?" Crickets. "Look, it ain't important. You're Holly Potter, ain'tcha? That makes me Samantha Penn, just call me Sam, don't bother with titles or nothin'. I've lived long enough to lose all patience for titles."

'Sam' emphasized her last statement by giving Holly a fang-filled smile that reminded the younger girl of her very own; the storm cloud eyes above the smile seeming to have a bit of orange-yellow sun peek through them for the briefest of moments. Looking the woman up and down Holly couldn't help but wonder aloud her next question.

"How old are you, exactly?" Before she could be answered she realized what she just said and covered her mouth with a hand. "Oh! N-not too be rude or anything. Sorry, you don't have to answer that if you don't want to."

"I ain't gotta answer even if ya didn't 'pologize for askin,'" Sam's smile turned into more of a grin. "I don't mind, though. Honestly, I cain't really remember the exact year I was born. Let's see... It was somewhere between Queen Victoria's weddin' and the start of Japan's Meiji era. That gives us, like, a 28-year margin of error though... So I guess let's just say somewhere in the middle of that so I'm a solid 30 years older'n Albus Dumbledore at around 140."

Holly reeled at that bit of information. 140 years old and she still looked like that? Did that mean Holly was going to look like a girl on the edge of puberty her entire, possibly endless life? That... That wasn't something that struck Holly as, particularly good news. In fact, that was pretty bad, all things considered.

"Hey, hey there, what's got you in such a tizzy?" Sam rested her hands on either of Holly's shoulders, her transatlantic accent fading somewhat as she did so. "If yer worried about not ever havin' any bubs then let me assure you that's nothin' but bushwa. I cain't speak for right now, but trust me, give it a couple years and a real simple bit o' magic and you won't just be the cat's meow, honey dearest, you'll be a choice bit of calico."

Blinking in a mixture of confusion and astonishment Holly was again rendered speechless. That... That was certainly English, probably, but so many of those words and phrases had beyond no meaning to Holly that it may as well have been Greek.

"Uh... R-right," Holly stammered out. "I was told we can use one of the empty classrooms for our lessons. This way, please."

Younger led older down the halls of Hogwarts to an abandoned classroom that looked like it had once been used to teach some kind of music class. Not like the school's toad choir, but some kind of stringed instrument Holly didn't know the name of. Either way, it looked like it hadn't been used by anyone to teach in over a hundred years. It had desks and chairs though, so it would do.

"Right!" Sam exclaimed with a clap as Holly sat down at the forward most desk. "Your letter expressed interest in bein' taught both ritual magic and about bein' a vampire. Seeing as how you yourself are one I assume you mean to learn about your new culture and abilities, yes?"

 _Huh, that's weird her accent is almost totally gone._ "Y-yes, that's correct," Holly agreed with a nod.

"Super," Sam hopped up onto the teacher's desk at the front of the room and crossed her legs at the knee. "The latter is a much smaller amount I need to teach, so let's use today to cover that. We've only got until the 19th before you go on Christmas break and lessons become weekly instead of daily. That'll gimme 12 days for your primer on basic ritual magic. At that point you can decide if it's a thing you want to continue and, if so, then I can write up a proper lesson plan for however fast you learn."

Holly nodded excitedly. She took out a roll of parchment, quill, and ink in preparation to write notes. Just as she finished setting down her supplies, however, Sam placed atop her parchment something she hadn't seen in over a year: a notebook and mechanical pencil.

"To begin," Samantha drawled to give Holly time to put her archaic writing tools away and use the more modern ones. "There are many types of vampire found in the world. The majority of these variants feast on the lifeblood of animals and/or other humanoids; humans, goblins, house elves, werewolves, etc. Two sub-categories, however, do not.

"First, there is the Jiang-Shi who feed not on the life through blood but the chi, the breath of life. They are created similarly to a ghost when an obsession or strong unfulfilled desire was not met in life. Unlike a ghost, however, they were improperly buried without the correct rituals to quiet those feelings somewhat. So instead of remaining as an immaterial ghost, they rise again as a Jiang-Shi. Thus, these desires express themselves much more strongly than one typically witnesses in a ghost. Also called 'hopping vampires' the Jiang-Shi's distinctive gait is deceptively dextrous. They are usually extremely gifted in the arts of divination, as well."

 _Is her accent just faked or something or does she just lose it when in 'lecture mode?'_

"Second, is the Vetala who feed not on the breath or the blood of life but the prana, the consciousness or psyche of life. Often referred to as 'memory thieves' or 'masters of many forms' the Vetala has few but powerful unique abilities. Able to utilize the thoughts and memories stolen along with the prana they feed on they, more so than any other, become increasingly dangerous the longer they live. They are especially difficult to find and deal with, as they have the ability to move about as a formless being of pure essence and steal someone's body for their own use. The only way to permanently rid the world of one such being is to find its original body, protected well indeed, and destroy it.

"However, we shan't be covering those types of vampire for now. Perhaps later if you have an interest I can teach you more about our Asian cousins. Instead, we shall be focusing primarily on the blood-based vampires, those typically found in England especially.

"Now," Sam removed herself from the teacher's desk and started pushing all the other student desks to the edges of the room. "While I lecture I shall be drawing out a ritual circle that will allow us to tell exactly what variant you match most closely with. Won't take but a few shakes of a lamb's tail." Holly turned her desk around to face the drawing and Samantha just in time to see the older woman punctuate her strange phrase with a wink.

"Match most with?" Holly questioned. "Can vampires reproduce like humans then and do the variants mix now and again?"

"Eh, technically no."

"Technically?"

"Magic can overcome almost any task claimed to be impossible. By and large, however, vampires can't sexually reproduce. Very recently turned ones can, I suppose, but it's a fairly narrow window, 'bout a week. After that time a vampire's physiology has started to change enough that succeeding at such a goal is nearly impossible. After a month it's actually impossible without the use of a pregnancy ritual. I haven't heard of one of those being used here in at least three generations, though.

"Anyway, there are a few common types of powers that are typical of European vampires. They almost always have an alternative humanoid form and one non-humanoid one. The humanoid form change is sometimes compared to the abilities of a metamorphmagus but it isn't fluid. It's always the same form every time. What that form is changes from vampire to vampire, and sometimes they don't have one at all. It's typically based on what age the vampire was turned and the circumstances under which they were turned.

"For example, I was turned at age 20 and was offered the opportunity and took it quite willingly. As a result, while I have since used a ritual to attain the appearance I had at age 18 my alternate humanoid form is still 20. In addition, my eyes turn a swirling mixture of orange, yellow, and a little pink. My hair gets a bit shorter than it is now and my face becomes gaunter as my skin pales and shadows seem to cling to me in lazy pools.

"The non-humanoid form has a trio of things it almost always is if a vampire has it. The most common is the form of a beast. Comparable to an animagus, a vampire is almost always a boar, giant bat, bear, hyena, leopard, lion, shark, or wolf. More uncommonly a vampire can instead turn into a swarm of smaller animals. Usually a swarm of bats, rats, centipedes, leeches, or spiders. The most uncommon of the three common forms is the ability to turn into mist or fog. It's the slowest of the forms, but also the most defensive.

"Nobody is one-hundred percent of what factors decide what your non-humanoid form will be. There are a few theories, but they're about as scientific as magic usually is: not very." Samantha stood from her kneeling position on the floor and looked at Holly with a smile.

"Done," Sam announced. "Take off that goofy robe and get in the middle without scuffing up my chalk lines," Holly swore she just barely heard the older woman mumble something about wizards and their abhorrent fashion sense.

Doing as requested Holly quickly but carefully removed her school robe and set it in her chair. Tiptoeing her way across the rather elaborate circle of lines and symbols Holly made it to the center without issue. She stood patiently as her tutor knelt back down and pressed just the tips of her fingers to the outer most edge of the circle and began muttering something under her breath.

Witnessing her very first ritual was kind of interesting at first, but it quickly got to be a little on the tedious side. All it looked like to Holly was standing around and muttering something. It was later explained to Holly that this was one of the more boring and simple rituals, but it tended to take a while to actually kick in. Sam blamed that on the fact that the guy who came up with it was a drunk and couldn't handle anything complex to speed it up.

Finally, after five solid minutes of nothing, all the salt-infused chalk on the floor started to glow a faint red and shimmer with sparkles of silver-white. Samantha got to her feet and started slowly circling the ritual area as she examined all sorts of swirls and nearly shapeless blobs of smoke that gently rose from various points of the chalk. Her eyes shone with a bewitching understanding gifted to her by the ritual to understand its results.

"Uncommon, but nothing overly rare," Samantha spoke up after a minute or two. "Alternative humanoid form, basis in violence as an unwilling victim will most likely result in very dark red eyes. Parts of your body will appear made of shadows as well. You won't notice much if any, difference right now, but as you get older you'll note that your alternate form will always be about your current size. The extremely short amount of time spent around the one who turned you means your alternate form will be strong and fast, but also incline you slightly towards sociopathic tendencies when in use. On the bright side, you'll be able to go trick-or-treating any time you want... Hm? You were turned by accident?"

"Uh..." Holly fidgeted in place. "I kind of stabbed him in the mouth when he had his fangs in my neck. I thought it was a needle and he was injecting me with something, so I thought to hit his hand. Turns out it was under his chin where I hit instead and most of the blood that ended up all over me wasn't mine."

Samantha chuckled darkly before continuing. "Non-Humanoid form is fog. Nothing remarkable about it, and no additional forms alongside it." She stopped and seemed to take a closer look at one particular pattern of swirling smoke. "Interesting. You've already got a thrall? No, only a partial. A willing one though, that's handy enough, I suppose. You'll be able to borrow their senses and they'll empathically know when you're in need of them but you'll be unable to give them commands."

That bit of information was rather concerning. That could only be Susan, with mention of borrowing her senses. At least it sounded like Holly hadn't accidentally stolen her best friend's free will or anything. Maybe she should stop putting off telling Susan, and maybe Amelia, about that. It was just a little creepy to stumble upon the ability to see through someone's eyes, though.

"Oddly high capacity to communicate with animals," Samantha went on, circling once more. "Snakes? Off-theme for a vampire must be a witch thing. Familiars as well, more common but will no doubt get funny looks. Can't do it yet, but good chance you'll one day be able to command spiders or bats. Smaller chance of both. You've been spending almost all your magic on powering runes? Try to find some other source of power for them or you'll quickly become exhausted once you've got a decent number of arrays going at once."

Samantha got to one particularly complex pattern of slightly darker smoke with a perplexed expression. It quickly melted into a look of mild shock and not a little bit of horror but was just as soon back to a more neutral expression. She stopped her pacing around the ritual circle and glanced down at the drawing itself. Not-so-elegantly scuffing the edge of the outer circle the entire light show abruptly stopped and she looked back up towards Holly with a smile.

"Congratulations, you're what's commonly referred to as a 'Menagerie Vampire.' I recommend bonding to several familiars at once, because unlike most everyone else you actually can, as well as getting all sorts of different kinds of familiar. Don't worry _overly_ much if they die. As a Menagerie, you'll be able to incorporate their souls, living or recently slain, into your vampiric nature and summon them forth as shades.

"You'll also be able to bond to some rather unorthodox creatures that normal witches, wizards, or even other vampires can't. Things like magical creatures, sentient constructs, and sapient beings, like thralls."

"I-I can take people I've fed from as familiars!?" Holly reeled with that bit of news. She didn't even know how to or how not to bond with a familiar. She just kind of _did_ with Hedwig. Did that mean Susan was already-

"No, no, no," Samantha waved her hand dismissively like this wasn't all that important. "Only full thralls, and only those that were originally magical. Whomever you have in mind is only a partial thrall. They're similarly named, but really it's better to call the latter 'Partners' instead. Thralls are individuals that you've fully drained off all their blood in a single feeding. Normally you'd think this would result in their death, and it kinda does, but it also infuses their body with quite a lot of magic. They're classified as a sort of partial undead but look and act almost entirely normal. The only differences are that they follow the commands of their master without question, you can see through their eyes, and communicate telepathically with them.

"'Partners' on the other hand are individuals that you've drained entirely over the course of several feedings. This usually takes a few months and almost never leaves them with so little blood that they'd have died. Usually. This type of thrall is usually already a friend or ally, if not some kind of prisoner. Their senses are also yours to borrow and while you're unable to command them unquestionably they'll have a sort of empathic warning system for when you need their help. They tend to get something out of each feeding, too. Pleasure, magic, and a minor buff to their physicality are the usual suspects but you can opt to also give them just a teeny tiny part of your soul and have them be a poor man's phylactery."

"What's a phylactery? And isn't removing part of your soul universally a bad thing?" Holly asked as she returned to her notebook to write down everything being said.

"A phylactery," she began with a glance towards Holly's forehead. "Is a permanent kind of soul jar, a magical... Object that the act of making turns one into a lich. It divorces the body and soul and grants a kind of immortality. The reason doing this with a partial thrall is a 'poor man's phylactery' is because it doesn't make anyone into a lich and doesn't give _you_ immortality. In fact, it actually gives the thrall a kind of immortality. Like lending out your own long life to them for a bit. It's not perfect, but it'll make 'em last a heck of a lot longer than they normally would. I'm kind of a bad example, being a fairly moderately young vampire, but for those of us that are several hundred years old having a friend or loved one stick around for a long ass time can be pretty nice."

Holly took a few minutes of silence to catch up with her notes before looking up at Samantha. "How come it's only a 'kind of' immortality? Are _we_ immortal?"

"Nobody's truly immortal, kid," Sam suddenly regained that weird cowboy accent. Sitting down on top of the teacher's desk once more she crossed her arms and collected her thoughts for a few moments. "We ain't gonna live forever, chances are we ain't even gonna make it to one-thousand. I s'pose it's possible to get that old as a vampire, but it's just delayin' the inevitable. We're all made of stardust, Holly, and not even the stars are forever.

"Now, I know we've got another ten minutes before your next tutor's time is supposed to start but how about we call things for now? I saw something in that ritual just now that I need to talk to Madam Amelia about."


End file.
